Dalek Week Entries
by Arysthae
Summary: The seven Dalek Week entries, from Alek-and-Deryn's group contest on DeviantArt. Involving children, airships, Clankers, Darwinists, nuisances and romance, this collection of stories gives snapshots into the head canon of Arysthae. Rated T for good measure.
1. Parents

**DALEK WEEK : Parents**

**AN: This story is a little segment I'd like to add to my main story Musings of a Mother, which is an entire tale based around this very prompt. If it all seems a little abrupt, go read that for a little more background information.**

There were times Deryn wondered how she put up with her child. Then again, there were times when Deryn wondered how Lilia put up with her and Alek (but that was a different story).

The reason for Deryn's frustration stemmed from the reason of most of their frustration; the fulfilling of Alek's dream. A fabricated airship that could be used for commercial purposes with a Clanker engine, seemed wonderful in theory, but putting it into practice was becoming increasingly difficult and expensive.

In the beginning, they'd gotten funding from the Society; after all, if their venture succeeded, the Society wouldn't have to depend on the military for transport anymore. But their meager funding wasn't enough, now. The year was 1931 and Clanker parts were becoming gradually more expensive as Germany's economy re-stabilized and finding decent manufacturers for all of the luxury items on ship was nearly impossible on their budget.

Which was why, when the news came from Count Volger that the aristocracy in Austria were holding a party, Alek secured his hands on an invitation. With Emperor Franz Joseph's death in 1916, the monarchy in Austria had collapsed, with large bids for power taken by Alek's cousins and other extended relatives. Count Volger, with Alek's background assistance, put a distinct stop to the madness however, and slowly guided Austria towards a republic that didn't need Germany's help.

Deryn had been duly informed by an overworked Alek that many Austrian politicians had wanted to create the Republic of German-Austria, despite Germany having lost the war and being all but bankrupt due to reparations paid towards France. Deryn had wondered then, just how stupid politicians were when she'd heard that particular news.

The invitation to the Austrian Republic's party had been rather difficult to obtain. Despite Alek's stabilizing presence throughout the monarchy collapse, he still was a figurehead of the Hapsburgs and Wilhelm Miklas, the president of the Republic had been iffy about extending that courtesy towards Alek.

However, though the party would be the ideal place to try and gain funding from the rich Austrian noble families and their Darwinist allies that would also be attending, it left the problem of what to do with her six year old daughter, Lilia.

"You aren't leaving me with Ma Sharp, are you?" Lilia asked, looking horrified, her Latin grammar left abandoned on the table.

"She's one of the only people who'd be willing to look after you for a week straight." Deryn said, calmly. Alek was standing behind her. Deryn had refused to let him break the news to Lilia alone. Knowing him, the moment she broke out her googly eyes and pathetic voice, he'd give in to her every demand. It was a very true fact that Lilia was 'Vater's little angel.

That wasn't to say that Deryn didn't love Lilia, but she saw straight through most of Lilia's tricks, having used most of them once upon a time on her unsuspecting father.

"But there's nothing to do in Scotland! She makes me embroider! I have to wear dresses all the time! It's all very well wearing dresses sometimes, but you can't do anything in them! And she hates me being in her precious garden. It's not fair! I don't want to go!" said Lilia, looking annoyed. The little girl stamped her foot, tossing her red curls in her anger.

Deryn had to suppress a fond smile. While she was the physical image of her father (not including Deryn's blue eyes), Lilia's personality was definitely very similar to her own as a child. And this made Deryn reconsider placing Lilia at Ma Sharp's house in Scotland. Deryn had hated being the typical girl, with corsets and frills, and she wasn't about to inflict that on her daughter, even if it was only for a week.

"Fine then Lilia. Where will you go?" Deryn asked, waiting for her daughter's answer. She was sure there would be one. As Count Volger repeatedly crowed, she was an intellectual, even at her young age.

"Uncle Volger's house!" she said, with a smile. At this, she heard Alek break into fits of laughter behind her. It was all Deryn could do to not follow suit.

"What's so funny?" asked Lilia, looking concerned that she had missed something.

Alek, between chuckles (they were really giggles, but Alek had always objected when she had called them that), started to explain. "You mustn't misunderstand me; Count Volger is a brilliant teacher, but as a stand-in parent? He'll go insane. God's wounds, I'm insane for even considering it! No, he wouldn't do. You would be studying all day and all night. You wouldn't sleep and you would probably get fed something that's only vaguely edible, unless he's actually employed a cook in the last month."

Lilia broke in. "He hasn't. Whenever I eat lunch at his house, it's always something really sus-suspicious. Last week, I forgot the food that you made, Vater, and the only thing in his pantry was some really old looking cheese and bread."

Deryn sighed. This was a point of shame, that she couldn't accomplish this particular skill, but Deryn's cooking attempts had always been awful and had usually ended with part of her adhered to the wall and flour all over the ceiling. Alek, on the other hand, had been a dab hand at it, once he'd started getting lessons from the cook, Simon, that they'd made friends with.

"That only confirms my suspicions. You aren't going to stay with Volger. What about with Jaspert and Miranda?"

Deryn shook her head at this one. "No, they're all busy. Thomas is at is boarding school, Jaspert's serving as coxswain for the Minotaur, somewhere over the Pacific and Miranda's at Suffragette meetings almost daily, notwithstanding the work she does for the Women's Institute."

This information had all been garnered from the detailed letters that Miranda sent as correspondence to Deryn almost every fortnight.

"Anyway, Thomas is really mean!" said Lilia, interjecting her opinion once more. "He's always pulling my hair and stealing my books. I don't like it!"

Deryn had to smirk again. She remembered that particular incident and the revenge her overly precocious daughter had taken on Thomas for it. Jaspert had been horrified by what his sweet niece had done, but Miranda had merely punished both of them, setting them to work in her kitchen.

"And there isn't a chance in the world we're sending her to Dr. Barlow." said Alek, rolling his eyes.

Deryn nodded emphatically. She respected the lady boffin, but she was still surprised that all four of her children had survived past childhood. Dr. Barlow could be very absent-minded about common necessities like food, sleep and entertainment, when they didn't pertain to her fabrications.

"Why can't I just come with you? I'll helpful, I promise. And I won't be pet-petulant? Petulant, like Uncle Volger says that I am when he makes me do fencing or boring things. Anyway, you're trying to raise more money for the airship, aren't you? I could help with that. Uncle Volger's always saying about how children have so much more influence than expected. If I'm cute enough, they'll listen to me." said Lilia, rapidly released all of the words into the world.

Deryn looked at her daughter for a second. There didn't seem to be any faults in her explanation, but it was a bit sudden. "Is this because you'll miss us too much?" Deryn asked.

Lilia looked away, and then started talking so quietly that Deryn had to strain to hear her. "You're always going away, somewhere. Some day trip to Newcastle for grunt labourers, some trip to Ireland for fabrication trainers and I'm always being left behind. Even in everyday life, I barely ever get to go to your workplace, I'm always being left at Uncle Volger's house. Which isn't to say that I don't enjoy it! I do. It's just; I never get to do anything that's actually useful to you. And I want to help. And I can help this time round. Please don't leave me here for a week."

Deryn crouched down and put her arms around her daughter. "We don't mean to, Lilia. We love you with all of our hearts, you know that, don't you?" She felt her daughter nod against her back. "We mean well. Our workplace is dangerous for a little girl. You may have the smarts, but it's still dangerous, and you're ever so adventurous. You're always scampering around. You never sit still. I was the same way as a child. Which is why we always leave you behind. I think, sometimes I forget just how wee and little you are. And, aye, you're right. Leaving you here for a week without us is a bit much. You can come with us."

She felt her daughter's back straighten and abruptly, Lilia flung her arms around Deryn. "Thank you Mummy! I promise, I'll try to sit still! And I'll wear dresses! And I—"

"You're allowed to come with two conditions." Deryn interrupted. Her daughter deflated partially. "One, you stay within our sights, unless we tell you otherwise. It's another country. If we lose you, it'll be near impossible to get you back again, especially since the Austrian government aren't too fond of us. Two, you don't complain about being there. Aye?"

Lilia nodded enthusiastically and ran off to her room, shouting back at them, something garbled that sounded like 'Packing'.

Deryn turned around and glanced at Alek, whose arms were crossed with one eyebrow raised. "What happened to not giving into her demands?" he said, in a stern voice. But Deryn saw the twinkle in his eyes and the smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

"Alright!" exclaimed Deryn, "I crumbled! She was too forlorn! Blisters Alek, we're both unable to resist her wiles! But don't give me some mock-piety or any holier-than-thou attitude, Alek! You would have crumbled the moment she said 'please' in her pretty-girl voice!"

Alek shrugged and then grinned. "I can't wait to unleash her unto the Austrian politicians. The look on her face will be worth the whining."

And Deryn laughed and kissed him enthusiastically, because it looked like their venture would succeed.

(X)

Deryn didn't understand how her six year old daughter managed to wear a dress better than she did. Deryn herself wore a sleek, floor-length, blue dress and sapphires at her neck and ears. She would have much preferred to have gone to the ball in her military uniform as former Captain-Lieutenant, but Alek had insisted, that to gain points with the aristocracy, she had to be proper. Which had meant stuffing herself back into a dress.

Which wasn't as bad as Deryn liked to make out. Since Tesla's death, Deryn had worn dresses for a grand total of six times, each time, stunning Alek into silence, which had always led to passion once they were away from the public eye. The fashions were slowly improving, however. Dresses were getting shorter and bustles were completely unheard of in the modern woman. Corsets were getting less common and it was no longer strange for women to have short hair.

Which was all very well, but when your daughter, in her green flapper dress and hair in tight ringlets looked more natural and comfortable than Deryn did, she knew that she was most definitely not cut out for wearing dresses more often.

"Mummy, who do I need to try to talk to?" asked Lilia, as she fiddled with her ringlets.

Deryn paused for a moment. That she hadn't considered.

"Alek!" she called across the rooms. Their guest suite had come with three separate rooms for all three of them, which had been a pleasantly surprising courtesy.

She heard his feet sound out along the smooth wooden floor as he popped his head into her room. "What is it Deryn?" he said. He was midway between sorting out his neck ruffles and he was dressed in a very formal Clanker uniform.

Deryn's eyebrows rose at his get-up and he rolled his eyes. "I know, I know, it's really strange for you. But it's Clanker tradition to wear this type of clothing to formal occasions. This was my Father's coat, before he…." He trailed off and Deryn placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. He still had trouble at times, coming to grips that his parents' lives were so abruptly ended.

"I suspect you had to do a lot of altering, aye?" asked Deryn cheekily, attempting to get his mind off of it.

Alek coloured. "If I've told you once, I've told you enough times. My father was not fat."

Deryn smirked. "I never said anything of the sort. I was actually referring to your height, midget. Your father was several inches taller than you, if the photos are anything to go by."

Alek merely rolled his eyes, being the model of prince-like aloofness. "I assume you summoned me for another reason, than to just insult me, hmm?" he drawled.

"Yes, she did, actually," piped up Lilia, who had been silent during their exchange, used to the banter that Alek and Deryn exhibited in daily life. "Who do I need to talk to?"

Alek answered quite promptly, despite his surprised look. "Well, Wladyslaw Umiastowski and his wife Sophia Jane are attending this evening. They are Poland's wealthiest family and highly influential. Wladyslaw also has a fondness for children."

Deryn's face screwed up in slight disgust and Alek coloured again. "Wrong wording. Sorry. He and his wife are childless, which means that he likes to think of every child as his, especially when they are well born and well mannered. All you have to do is smile and deplete your knowledge of complex words and mannerisms."

Lilia's face brightened. "Can I talk in other languages at him?" Deryn rolled her eyes; Alek had managed to infuse his love of languages into her. She spoke English and German fluently, with French coming close behind, though apparently she still struggled with vocabulary. She was learning Latin from Alek and Greek from Volger and the occasional Spanish from Simon, when he sporadically visited them.

However, amazing this was for a six year old child (or the freak of nature, as Volger 'fondly' called her), Deryn often felt out of the loop when Alek and Lilia talked in Clanker or Frog. She was proud of Lilia, but scared that Lilia would leave her behind. The only language that Deryn knew well was English. Clanker-talk had been easy enough to pick up, but Deryn didn't particularly like speaking German.

Alek nodded. "He speaks Polish as his home language and German as his second. He speaks English very poorly, but he speaks Russian well."

Lilia looked interested. "Do you speak Russian, Vater?" she asked.

Alek shook his head. "No, mein liebling, but I do know Hungarian. But I want you fluent in Latin before we get into other languages."

She pouted but then at Deryn's sharp gaze, straightened and beamed radiantly. Deryn grinned, her daughter looked like a regular angel.

"How'll I recognize him?" asked Lilia, "Will you point him out to me?"

Alek frowned, and Deryn understood why. Pointing him out would be rather obvious and would make Lilia' subtle nudgings towards supporting the airship less worthwhile.

"He has a very large mustache. It's very bushy. He will also be wearing the Umiastowski coat of arms. It's red and white, with a gold and green crown above it. You'll know him when you see it."

Lilia frowned. "Does he have a better mustache than Uncle Volger?"

Deryn burst into fits of silent giggles and she could hear the laughter in Alek's voice. "No, mein liebling, no one has a better mustache than Volger."

Deryn started wheezing and Alek gripped her arm and pulled her upright. "Careful, darling. It wouldn't do to choke and die before the dinner's done." Deryn slowly recovered herself and faced Lilia, who had impressively managed to keep a straight face through it all and winked at her.

Then she caught a glimpse of the clock and swore. "Blisters Alek, we'll be late to the dinner! Look, I'll do your neck things. Lilia, go put on your black buckled shoes, okay?"

Lilia nodded and sprinted out of the room. Deryn deftly pulled and tucked Alek's neck ruffles with ease; they were often used in the air-force at formal occasions as well. As she finished, Alek kissed her gently on the lips and she smiled but didn't kiss back. Wouldn't want to leave lipstick all over his mouth and cheeks.

"Come on," said Deryn pulling up her elbow-length white gloves. "Let's get Lilia and go."

Alek merely looked at her. "You look beautiful. Absolutely stunning."

Deryn scoffed. "Don't give me empty compliments, I look mismatched. I don't belong in a dress. And this hairband is driving me insane!" said Deryn, tugging at the hard metal.

Alek shook his head and Deryn threw him a look. "Alek, my six year old daughter looks better in a dress than I do. What does that say about me?"

"It says that she is very comfortable in dresses. It doesn't say anything about you. Deryn, I'll love you whatever you're wearing. I just wanted you to feel more comfortable tonight. I know we're supposed to be on business tonight, but it's the first Austrian occasion you've been to. I've been to several and I wanted you to take a walk into my world, for one night. Enjoy yourself a little."

Deryn rolled her eyes. "For you, I'll try. As I always have. I can't guarantee anything, however. I'll be too busy worrying, instead."

Lilia re-entered the room with her polished black buckled shoes over her white stockings. Deryn smiled and walked towards her. She linked her arm through Alek's, offered her hand to Lilia, and as a family they walked towards the dinner.

(X)

The meal was superb, that Deryn couldn't deny. There was variety after variety. French food, German food, Russian food, Indian food, food from the Caribbean. It had been difficult to decide which meal to go for. But there had been no enjoyment through this for Lilia. All Lilia had done was fidget with her stockings and push her food around the plate with a fork.

Deryn had been too busy conversing with potential investors to be able to worry too much about her during the meal, but now they hung around the back of the dance floor, Deryn coerced her daughter into spilling the beans.

"What's wrong Lilia?" Deryn asked, keeping an eye on Alek dancing with Princess Juliana of the Netherlands.

"I don't think I can be convincing enough, Mutter." She said, and she looked so upset about this, Deryn let the German pass by without comment.

"You will be. If I'm able to get stuck in a dress for this occasion, you'll be able to act. I trust you, Lilia. So does your father. You aren't a wee lass anymore. Remember rule number two, aye? No complaining. Now come on. You wanted to do this. Go and find Wladyslaw."

Lilia nodded, looking happier about the whole affair and disappeared into the crowd. Deryn tried to sink into the background. She had played nice at dinner, but the last thing she wanted to do was dance.

"Deryn Sharp? You are Deryn Sharp?" a loud voice interrupted her sulky thoughts. She turned around to find a tall woman with short blonde hair and an orange dress staring at her.

"Yes," said Deryn, feeling surprised, "That's me. I'm afraid I am at a disadvantage here. I don't know your name."

"I think you do. Most people do," she said, a clear American accent twanging through her words. "My name is Amelia Earhart. I fly airplanes for a living. They call me an inspiration there, but you are an inspiration in Britain."

Deryn laughed dryly. "No, I'm a disgrace. A woman in the front lines of war? Preposterous. A woman parading herself as a man? Degrading. A woman earning higher honours in the military than a man? Disgraceful."

Amelia Earhart didn't look convinced. "Yes, but I read your interview with Adela Rogers. You said that you did it all because you wanted to fly. You felt free when you were in the air. That it was all you ever wanted to do, and you went to every length to reach that goal. That's admirable. It's what I did. Am doing."

"But you didn't hide." said Deryn, "You're achieving so much more respect from women than I am. I'm just a disgraced nobody, who wanted to fly and got involved in a war."

Amelia shook her head emphatically. "Don't put yourself down, Miss Sharp. You did so much more than most men could do. You were on the front lines of battle and you survived with a medal and then went on to receive military highs! You were Captain of a ship, weren't you? That's a huge honour. And they kept you on that ship, until you quit."

"Yes, but it was a forced resignation, I didn't wa—" Deryn protested but was quickly interrupted by Amelia again.

"And now you're trying again. To get back in the air. I heard about your attempt to make a hydrogen breather that would be commercial with Clanker engines. It sounds absolutely fascinating. You must tell me more. I have never been in a hydrogen breather before. I have traveled in Huxleys on occasional points in my life, but never a hydrogen breather." said Amelia.

Deryn perked up, this sounded remarkably like she wanted to sponsor them… "Well, it's wonderful being in the air. But you know that so I'll carry on. It's an ecosystem, a fragile balance between all of the organisms on board. The animals are more important than the people, so there are days when you go hungry so the animals can continue to supply the hydrogen to the beastie. Its slow travel, compared to the speeds of airplanes, but it's much better for the environment. If you see the difference between Germany and Britain, the environment is so much purer for not being filled with factories, emitting plumes and plumes of smoke….

(X)

They all converged in the hotel room that night, all flushed and tired. Deryn flung herself unto the bed, throwing the high-heeled shoes away, happily into the corner of the room. Lilia looked fit to burst with happiness and Alek had a smug grin plastered over his face as he loosened his dress shirt and neck ruffles.

"Who's going first with their victory then?" said Deryn, as she massaged her feet.

Alek shrugged. "I don't mind. You go first Deryn."

Deryn smirked and leaned forwards. "I managed to garner Amelia Earhart's attention. She'll sponsor our airship, with the condition that she gets a place on the ship's maiden flight, preferably in first class. She also introduced me to Harold Sterling Vanderbilt, who was also interested in sponsoring us. He said that he'll give me an answer tomorrow. But I remain hopeful, he seemed really positive about the entire venture."

Alek grinned. 'That's brilliant, Deryn!" he said, kissing her cheek.

Deryn leant her head on his shoulder. "Too much of using feminine wiles. I don't want to have to go through that all again. Also, too much dancing. My feet ache."

"I'll go next then?" asked Alek and Lilia nodded. "I was talking to the Princess of the Netherlands and she thinks that most of her treasury will back our venture. She says that it will come out of her personal treasury, rather than the country's treasury. I also found a supplier of materials. Margaret Carnegie Miller was also attending this party and she's a trustee member of Carnegie's Steel Company so she is fairly certain that her company will agree to provide the steel we'll need for the main engine plates to protect the inner workings."

Deryn nodded slowly. "Carnegie was a lucrative man. I've heard of his company, because he came from Scotland originally. If his daughter has inherited his wealth, we'll have no problem finishing this airship." Deryn squeezed his arm and he looked excited.

Lilia grinned and straightened. "I'll go last then. I not only managed to snag Wladyslaw's interest in this, but Louis Nathaniel de Rothschild pledged support!" she said smugly.

Alek's eyes widened. "Rothschild? They are a good ally to have. They're extremely rich and influential. I'm related to them actually. They're honourary Hapsburgs, a part of them were granted that privilege by Franz Joseph. That was a good snag indeed."

"Also," said Lilia, looking very smug, "I managed to charm the Princess Elizabeth of Britain. She thinks that I'm the next best thing after chocolate. Her father thinks that I'm very nice and that I should go and play with the Princess sometime when we are all back in London."

Alek's mouth dropped open and Deryn lost her grip on the bed, tumbling off the edge in surprise. "What." uttered Deryn and Lilia merely smiled again.

"It was like you said, Mam. A bit of charm, twirling of ringlets, sophisticated vocabulary and they're all convinced that I'm cute and a good friend to have. Besides, she's nice." said Lilia.

Deryn started chuckling, perhaps slightly hysterically. "Of course. Of course you've just gained a strong friendship with the King's daughter and heir to the throne. Of course. Why didn't I expect it?"

Lilia blinked innocently. "I just did what you told me to, Mummy."

Alek grinned and lifted her up and swung her around. "Haha! You truly are your mother's daughter, Lilia! With this many sponsors, it's bound to go well!"

Deryn swept Lilia out of Alek's hands and kissed her cheek. "Well done, my darling! Well done."


	2. The Roaring Twenties

**DALEK WEEK: The Roaring Twenties**

Deryn hadn't planned to return to America, especially not San Francisco, but even the best made plans fell to pieces. She ducked behind a large newspaper stand and hid there as the policemen ran past without even thinking that she might be hidden there. Daft American Policemen.

(X)

This whole sorry mess had started with Dr. Barlow getting curious as to the nature of the Prohibition laws. As the personal assistant to Dr. Barlow, Deryn got shunted anywhere on the lady boffin's whim and her whim had been to skulk around America and inquire as to how the citizens were faring. After all, it was a strange thing, that America's economy had so thrived compared to the rest of the worlds', yet the government was restricting people from privileges even the lowest of commoners in the poorest countries could afford.

That was why Deryn had ingratiated with the owners of a suspected speakeasy. Alek on the other hand was taking the more formal route, being the former Prince of Austria and more like to be well-received by officials in the government. He was working with the policemen to get to the bottom of the illegal alcohol trade and Deryn was working with the speak-easies to get alcohol to those who really wanted it.

That had been problematic. For one, the owner of the speak-easy joint, Cantal Mouse, Danny Martins, was very much in favour of killing anyone who stood in his way of supplying alcohol to his customers and making money. And as Deryn had seen, competition between different speak-easies was very high. She'd been hired as a rumrunner along with five other hardened looking gentleman(or not.). At the end of a month, she was the only one still alive.

Deryn had managed to ease back into her sleep-schedule that she had used on the Leviathan. On the Leviathan, she'd always gotten the 9pm shifts to dawn shifts on the dorsal side of the ship. In Prohibition America, moonshine, rum and other alcohol was only smuggled into cities under the cover of darkness in some of the most remote places Deryn had ever seen. To be able to remain a successful part of the speakeasy and invaluable, Deryn had to be up and odd hour of the night and always armed. Alek had provided her with several pistols and knives after a small request for a smuggled weapon. She didn't know he did it and frankly, didn't want to know.

Of course, it was a dangerous business, rum-running and she had landed herself in prison once already and managed to reopen her knee injury, which wasn't great for running. But there were always worse things that could happen.

(X)

It was Tuesday, the 28th of April and Deryn was freezing. It was pouring it down with rain on the edge of San Andreas Lake and her companion, Sebastian Tiran wouldn't shut up. Spanish people. She kept her eyes and ears pealed for any traces of others amongst the forest.

"Derek! Derek! DEREK!"

Deryn turned around looking annoyed. "What is it, Sebastian?" she said, forcing a light American accent over her Scottish brogue

The Spanish man drooped, his thin black mustache seeming to deflate. "You weren't paying attention. What if someone ambushed us? I can't fight."

Deryn rolled her eyes. "I was blocking out your inane chatter. I'm paying attention to our surroundings. But it's difficult when you won't shut up!"

He looked very sad. "I'm sorry Derek. It's my first mission. I'm scared. What if the police catch us?"

Deryn gritted her teeth; she couldn't remember her or Alek ever being this pathetic. They dealt with what life threw at them, they didn't whine or complain when it was important. And this boy was older than her! The boy was 24, older than Deryn's 21, despite her faking to be around 30 and a man called Derek Smithers. "If they catch us, they catch us. Now shush. Pay attention to your surroundings. They could be here any moment now."

There was a peaceful silence for a moment, before Sebastian tired of being quiet and started chatting again. "Why isn't the shipment here? It's midnight; they said they'd be here. I'm so cold. I want to go back to the Cantal Mouse."

Deryn groaned and kept her ears pealed, tuning out Sebastian's whining. Suddenly, she heard the quiet sound of an engine coming from inland.

"Quick Sebastian, turn off the engine! The Police are coming from inland! I can hear their engines." Deryn hissed, ducking under the viewpoint of the windscreen.

But Sebastian did nothing. "Don't be stupid, Derek. There are times I forget you're a country hick. The Police don't use Clanker machines. The police use fabrications. Horse-eques are the most popular at the moment with the law. They're most efficient, and they have the life threads of a cheetah in them to make them run faster. They also don't break down like machines and all you need to keep them running is food and a doctor."

Deryn privately agreed with all of these statements, but she was supposed to come from the countryside in the North of the USA, a firm supporter of machines and Clanker technology. She envied Alek. He got to be around fabrications and horse-eques and she got stuck with Clanker technology, where she felt hopelessly out of place.

"It can't be the shipment. That's coming from the lake," mused Deryn. "That means there's only one person it could be; Victor Samuels."

Victor Samuels was the main rumrunner for the opposing speakeasy to the Cantal Mouse, The Laughing Horse. He was a tall bulky man, with an intimate knowledge of guns and other firearms. Deryn had never encountered him herself, but she knew the reason the other five rumrunners were dead was because of him. She'd have to watch her step around him.

"Victor Samuels?" whimpered Sebastian, as he sunk downwards under the windscreen.

"Get up, you fool. You're the driver. He'll spare you so you can send the message of my death." said Deryn as calmly as she could. But her heart was beating and her adrenaline levels were building. She would need them if they were to outrun Victor Samuels.

Sevastian didn't look convinced but sat up once more. Deryn leant back into her seat and lit a pipe. She thought smoking was a disgusting habit, but every male here smoked, so to blend in, she'd had to grow used to the vile taste of smoke and sin. The Zware shag was thick and black, a shag she'd stolen from Danny Martins. It was perhaps the worst tasting smoke yet and Deryn had to stop breathing in order to not gag and choke.

The men in the car she could now identify as purchased from the Ford factories, drew to a halt opposite Deryn's car.

Victor Samuels got out. Deryn fingered her shotgun with her left hand but continued to smoke, attempting to not choke.

"Howdy Victor," she called lazily, "Do you want a smoke too? I've got a light."

The gruff man scowled at her. "You are Derek Smithers, are you not?" he asked, a distinct European accent leaking through. She could see an old war injury in the limping walk and the many shrapnel scars on his face. She wondered if he had been in the trenches in the Great War.

"Yeah, that's right. Sure you don't want a smoke?" she said again and he started to growl. She merely smirked. The angrier he got, the more mistakes he'd make. She hoped.

"Come to steal our shipment of moonshine?" asked Sebastian, angrily, straightening in the car. Deryn groaned mentally; what a time for the boy to grow a backbone.

She smacked him around the head. "Ignore the driver. He's new to this whole game." She said casually, as if she wasn't newer.

Victor growled. "Draw your weapon." He said, "I want to get this over with."

Deryn purposefully yawned. "Boring. What if I don't want to? After all, guns are far too easy. A real man does things with his bare fists."

Deryn wasn't quite sure what she was doing. She could never take on the man in a brute strength battle. He was most definitely twice her weight and height. But then again, she had been with Lilit a few weeks ago and Lilit had been telling her about this new fangled Chinese fighting style of using the opponent's strength against them…

Deryn had only used this style once and had lost miserably to Lilit, who was far more experienced. But it was her only hope. Deryn was awful with Clanker Guns. Victor would have killed her in a heartbeat if they'd had a gun fight.

"No. Gun out." said Victor sharply.

Deryn grinned. "What a coward. Write this down Sebastian, Victor Samuels too scared to take on a man far smaller than him in a fist fight."

"I am not scared! You are puny. I will defeat you!" said Victor angrily and Deryn abruptly put her pipe down and rolled up her sleeves. Three knives were hidden there which she pulled off and placed in her seat. She removed both of her shotguns, but didn't remove the other six knives that were hidden in her lower body. Just in case Victor and his friends decided to play dirty.

Victor placed down four shotguns and a rifle, but Deryn wasn't stupid enough to think that he removed all of his weapons, either.

She settled into a boxing stance, her fists held upwards in a defensive position. Victor immediately came at her and she dodged the first three, the fourth hitting her hard in the stomach. Winded, Deryn staggered back. She immediately kicked Victor twice on the spot she was sure he had a war injury. He fell to the ground but, started to launch a punching assault on her lower body, until she too fell to the ground. He got up and was about to punch her when she grabbed his fist midway, and using his momentum, flung him back to the ground.

Deryn was ecstatic by that success! It was a trick that Lilit had used to defeat Deryn, but she knew Victor wouldn't stay down. Pulling herself up with agony, she put all of her weight on her good knee. Then, with a spring into the air, she transferred all of her weight to her bad leg and kneed Victor hard in the chest.

The man jerked suddenly, but he wasn't finished yet. Deryn had landed badly on top of him and he used the enormous strength in his arms to throw her until she hit the car. The metal was hard and sharp and Deryn felt woozy. She could feel blood trickling down the back of her head and the several little cuts and bruises all over the rest of her body.

She would feel that in the morning, but right now, her adrenaline propelled her back up again, ready to hit or be hit again.

To her surprise, she heard the car shake and she distantly saw Sebastian spring out the car with one of the shotguns.

"What are you doing, you d—" BANG! BANG! BANG!

With three shots, Victor fell to the ground, blood congealing in his chest. Deryn could hardly believe it, Sebastian could shoot!

But her mind had to quickly move from that subject because there were five very bulky men looking very menacing and angry that would most likely kill her for betraying the single combat rules. Damnit Sebastian, she would have won without his help!

She immediately flicked out her knives from her legs. Only six. She would have to be very accurate then. Deryn quickly threw the first three. It took down two of the mercenaries and narrowly missed one. She threw the other three as quickly as she could, dodging a bullet from one of the men and gained the same results. There was now one very angry man left with a very large rifle.

BANG! BANG! Two shots. Two shots are all it takes to kill somebody. Two small pieces of metal. The man fell but so did Deryn. She felt the bullet wound impact in her left arm and she could feel her heartbeat throbbing and letting the blood escape from the wound.

"Blisters Sebastian! When you shoot, try and bloody aim!" she shouted. Sebastian was already at her side, ripping off a bit of his shirt to wrap around her arm.

"I'm sorry!" he said looking pale, "I didn't mean to—'

"You idiot!" hissed Deryn as she finished the knot on the temporary bandage that was already red. "I could have finished Victor off myself! Now 6 men are dead and we're the only suspects. Who do you think the police will blame for Laughing Horse's' main 'waiters' being dead? Obviously the waiters of the rival restaurant, the Cantal Mouse! If it isn't us being arrested, I'll be some of the others!"

Just then the sounds of horses' hooves echoed through the night. Sebastian and Deryn both froze. They were behind the car and wouldn't be immediately visible, but the dead bodies everywhere would be.

"What do we do?" asked Sebastian, looking frantic.

"Run. Leave the car, leave the shipment. Run and don't look back." said Deryn calmly. "On my count. One, two three!"

With that Deryn moved from her crouching position and sprinted across into the surrounding trees. To her horror, Sebastian followed her. She couldn't stop now to shoo him away so just kept running as fast as she could and as quietly as she could, too. Luckily, when they were running for their lives and freedom, Sebastian could keep very quiet.

Once the sounds of policemen were long behind them, Deryn finally stopped, drawing to a close, panting heavily, feeling the adrenaline leave her. She could feel the blood from her headwound drip, and with the departure of the alertness, came the sleepy feeling that required her to shut her eyes and sleep awhile. The pain came back too and Deryn slumped against a rock.

"What are you doing?" asked Sebastian. "We have to go."

"No, we're fine. We'll go back to the city in the morning. Claim we went for a hike. If we come back now, all covered in blood right after six people have been found dead, we'll get arrested." said Deryn, faintly.

Sebastian looked guilty. "About that. Getting back to the city may be difficult."

Deryn threw him a plaintive look. "What did you do, Sebastian?"

"Well, you see, I might have, accidentally, forgetfully, in the heat of the battle—"

"Get on with it."

"Right. As you say Derek. I think, I might have, maybe, left my identification pass in the car."

Deryn looked up at him! "You idiot!" she yelled, and winced briefly at how high the last syllable had been. "How thick must you be to leave that there! Now they know that you've perpetrated the crime! Better yet, now you can't get back into the city!"

"If you haven't noticed, I was a little pre-occupied!" spat the Spanish man, 'You know, in saving your life?"

Deryn punched him. Hard. "Shut up, you moron. You've got to keep it on you at all times, like me. Why would you even put it down!"

Deryn rummaged in her pockets to back up her claim of always having it. It wasn't there. She patted frantically around all of her pockets and crannies it may have gotten stuck in but it seemed to have disappeared for good.

"Shit." She swore eloquently.

Sebastian looked smug. "You've got to keep it on you at all times, like me." He mimicked, with a smirk on his face.

"If you didn't notice, I was slightly pre-occupied with making sure I wasn't killed by a man twice my size. My ID falling out of my pocket wouldn't have even registered on my scale of things to notice. You have no excuse. You were in the car, all that time." said Deryn, coldly, but her heart wasn't in it. Dr Barlow would never forgive her for a crime of that magnitude. She was doomed. The mission would have to be abandoned and she would be a convict. No amount of diplomatic blethering could get her out of this situation.

Sebastian looked down and there were tears in his eyes. Deryn sighed; perhaps she was being a little harsh. "My dad is going to kill me for this. My body will be chucked into the bay and no one would know. Hell, he'd probably take on Al Capone to kill me."

"Dad?" asked Deryn with a frown. "I thought you said that your parents died."

Sebastian grinned. "I said my mum was dead and I didn't talk about my dad. You just assumed that he was also dead."

Deryn looked suspicious. "So who is your father?" she asked, leaning upwards.

"Danny Martins."

Deryn was sure her jaw had dropped. This was not on. No wonder Sebastian had gotten so much slack at the restaurant. Still, it didn't change the fact that Sebastian had done nothing but be useless since he got on the mission.

"Brilliant. Just brilliant. Does your identity pass identify him as your father?" Deryn asked, as a cold thought occurred to her.

"Yes." said Sebastian and Deryn swore loudly.

"Tarnation, that's not good. The whole speakeasy joint will get shut down!" Not that Deryn really cared for the selling of alcohol or the money gained from it, but the people who had been so good to her and friendly didn't deserve to be caught. Not when it would barely make a dent in the crime in the city.

Sebastian looked desperate. "What do we do?" he asked.

Deryn quickly run the plan through her brain. What would Alek or Volger do? Then it came to her. Neither of them would have done it, but it was their only solution. "We have to steal the passes back, before they can take it to the city."

Sebastian stared at her. "You've got to be joking me."

Deryn shook her head and staggered to her feet. "Come on. Let's make a plan."

(X)

Which is why she was currently hiding behind a newspaper stand in tiny local town, Linda Mar. She hoped that her distraction for the police officers would be enough for Sebastian to get in their and steal back their passes.

If it wasn't, they were done for. It seemed like the policemen had gone so Deryn quickly unclipped her braces, stripped off her bloodstained shirt and stole one of the laundry shirts that hung in the alleyway behind her. It didn't fit but it made her look more like a local. It also hid her bloodstained bandage, under its long, baggy sleeves. She pulled at her trousers and probed the headwound. It seemed to have clotted and stopped pouring with blood, but her blonde hair was partially red now.

Finding a leaking gutter, Deryn shut her eyes and mouth before submerging her head under it. She rubbed the blood out of her hair and then out of her hands, with some relief. She looked more normal now, albeit, soaked through.

The town was deserted; at 3 in the morning, it was unlikely that many residents would be awake, especially since it wasn't a large town like 'Frisco. Deryn rubbed her eyes, it wasn't like this was an odd time to be awake for her, but she was dead knackered. She wondered what her mother would say if she could see Deryn now.

Deryn strolled out into the main road, whistling quietly, like a local. She tucked her hands in her pockets and casually walked out of the main centre. She passed the police van and the driver even nodded at her! Luckily there were no policemen, who would have been more suspicious. She nodded back and continued to walk out of town.

As she reached the edge of the forest, she heard a crack behind her. She whirled around, hands held high, clenched in fists. A boy with reddish-brown hair lazily put up his hands and drawled, in a distinctly British accent, "Calm down Deryn. It's not like I'm going to hurt you."

Deryn smirked. "Alek. How grand to see you again. Finally get bored of sitting around doing nothing all day?"

Alek scoffed but kissed her passionately. "God's wounds, I missed you. Insults and all."

She laughed and twirled her fingers through his near shoulder length hair. "You're growing it out!" she said, in surprise.

He rolled his eyes. "Not likely. Just haven't had the time to cut it. I'm chasing some case of six dead bodies abandoned near San Andreas Lake, where we had gotten a tip-off of a moonshine delivery. You wouldn't know anything about that would you?"

Deryn smirked and tugged at his tie. "I might. It depends."

"How much?" he said, his voice a near whisper.

"A kiss, my good man." said Deryn with a smirk.

"What type of kiss?" Alek asked. "A kiss on the hand? The shoulder? The neck? The cheek? The nose? Or the lips?" With each example, he demonstrated it and Deryn had trouble staying still.

"I have your information, my good sir," said Deryn, "You need look no further. It was I. Have you identified the bodies yet?"

"No," said Alek, "Haven't the time. A person covered in blood just darted in front of the police vehicle who looked very distinctly drunk."

Deryn had to suppress laughter at Alek's smile. "Well Alek," she said, conversationally unbuttoning his shirt, "If you identify the large one with three gunshot wounds, you'll have found Victor Samuels who caused the murder of the 5 men who were found dead under mysterious circumstances over the past month. The other five are his acquaintances and rum-runners for the Laughing Horse."

"Very good to know. Six less criminals to catch. Out of interest," said Alek as Deryn massaged his chest, "Whose blood was it?"

"Mine. And a bit of Victor's."

Alek immediately pulled away. "What! Deryn, how are you injured?"

Deryn shook her head. "It's nothing. A headwound and a gunshot to the arm. I'll get it fixed when I get back to my speakeasy."

Alek looked despaired. "That's not nothing!"

Deryn rolled her eyes. "If I were Dylan Sharp, it would be nothing."

"Yes, but you aren't. You're mine, Deryn." said Alek and with that, promptly kissed her.

(X)

She met with Sebastian again at dawn, distinctly more disheveled than she had been. He'd managed to retrieve their passes. Alek had reassured her that if she used the entrance to San Francisco from San Bruno, they wouldn't be overly questioned or searched if they presented the guard with a couple of coins.

Once back at the Cantal Mouse, Deryn's wounds' were patched up as best as an old army medic could achieve. Her head wound disappeared in about two weeks without any adverse effects on her reasoning.

Deryn had gotten her information in two months and Alek finished his information collected three weeks after hers. With that, they left to go back to London. Deryn had sworn she wouldn't return to America before, and that had proved to be utterly wrong. Instead, Deryn hoped she wouldn't have to return to America. The New World posed a little too much excitement and not enough fabrications for Deryn's liking.


	3. Blindfold

**DALEK WEEK : Blindfold**

**AN: I have taken some liberties with events of the first world war; because ONE, The whole series is a real history AU, and TWO, it would be too difficult to explain without writing pages and pages of complex politics, people and knowledge, that frankly, the characters wouldn't have or know. So, just keep that in mind, when you gasp in horror at the overly simplified events (I'm a history geek too!)**

"AAH no, Deryn, _wrong way_!"

Alek clung to the back of the chair of the two-legged runabout like he was holding on for his life. To his dismay, Bovril hadn't such a tight grip on his shoulder and slid off, crashing into the side of the compartment. Alek quickly reacted by pulling on the right saunter, yanking it backwards, in a circling motion, attempting to lose the momentum. Once it was less precarious and the walker was firmly upright on its left leg, Alek eased the right saunter down quite far away. This left the walker in a rather awkward wide legged horse stance, so Alek moved the left leg closer to the right until the walker was firmly upright.

Keeping an eye on the pressure gauges, Alek eased the walker into its rest position and threw Deryn a look.

"Deryn, when I say left, I mean _left_. Not throw the ship into complete disarray, dummkopf."

Deryn rolled her eyes. "I was turning left. If it were a hydrogen breather, the cilia would guide it right."

Alek suppressed a sigh. "Yes, but Deryn, it isn't a hydrogen breather. Neither is it the Leviathan. It's a walker. You are in control all the time. If you don't get it right, you fall. You are the machine."

Deryn sighed. "I don't like Clanker technology, Alek. You always have to be in control. Why can't you just take life a little easier? You don't need machines; a living animal can do just as well."

Alek groaned, he'd heard this argument several times. "Yes, I understand that Deryn. The good Doctor wouldn't let me get away without the knowledge that fabrications are _always superior_. But if you parrot that in the Netherlands, you'll get smashed. They are very protective about their machines. They are very firmly Clanker, even if they aren't in the war."

"Yet." muttered Deryn, under her breath.

Alek sighed. "Deryn, what's got you in a mood today? You know that it's our job to prevent the Netherlands from officially joining Germany and checking whether they supply weapons to Germany or not."

Deryn sighed. "We've been practicing for three days. I STILL CAN'T BARKNG DO IT! You say that this two legged runabout is one of the easiest to pilot. I'm just hopeless at machinery. Look, you be the machine rider, I'll be the swaggering naval parson."

"Nice try, Deryn." said Alek, laughing, "But your role is that of a commoner getting work in the trade industry. You're old enough to be of service age so you know how to pilot a walker. Every boy knows how to pilot a walker."

Deryn growled. "This isn't Austria!"

"Yes, but it's a Clanker country! Anyone could pilot this blindfolded! You just aren't trying!"

Deryn scoffed. "I'd like to see you try!"

Alek undid his tie and permitted Deryn to tie it round his face. He was enveloped in black silk. He could only see little pinpricks of light from just below his nose and it hurt to look there too long.

"How many fingers am I holding up, daftie?" came Deryn's voice from behind him.

"You're behind me and I can't see, how am I supposed to tell?" asked Alek.

"Just answer me!" came Deryn's frustrated voice and a waft of scent, that was oddly like feathers. Deryn must have made some wild gesture with her arms.

"Umm, I don't know, 4?" said Alek.

"None." said Deryn, her voice oozing smugness, "Okay then, pilot this amazing walker. Show me what every barking clanker boy can do in this barking country."

Alek sighed, she was being unusually petulant today, but yesterday night had been filled with paper and diagrams and planning rather than sleep, which might have explained her grumpiness. Then Alek remembered that they'd skipped breakfast. It all suddenly made a lot more sense.

He eased himself into the chair and twiddled his fingers around the saunters. They were cool the touch, the metal having already conducted the heat from Deryn's hand to the surroundings. He heard the familiar hiss of the pressure gauges and fumbled around the consol until he found the fuel level. It was at around half. Perfect for another 20 kilometres or so.

"Okay Deryn," Alek said, "Open the viewport to full."

"What?" she said and he could almost imagine the confused look on her face. "Why do you want the viewport open if you can't see?"

"The viewport is useful for more things than just being able to see." said Alek as cryptically as he could, just so he could hear her frustrated growl as she wound the lever to open the viewport.

Surprisingly for Britain, it was a sunny day and the moment the viewport was open, Alek could feel the warm sunlight on his face. It reminded him of the walking lessons he'd had with Klopp at the age of eight. He inhaled deeply and smelt the autumn harvest on the air. Unsurprising, considering that they were in the middle of a field that had been harvested of wheat just two days before.

Alek eased the saunters forward and felt the machine step forward. He walked slowly at first, letting the sunlight and the smell of fresh barley guide his footsteps. He heard the sounds of the grass and unwanted plant debris crunch under the walker's weight and felt the thud of the earth under the weight and the swaying movement of an easy movement. It was like the rocking of a cot and Alek felt oddly sleepy.

"Blimey Alek!" said Deryn, her voice a shade of surprise and frustration at the same time. Then her voice morphed into a shade of smugness. "Still, I can walk pretty decently. Why don't you do something interesting?"

"I'm not finished yet," said Alek, mildly. He knew that Deryn was 'miffed', as she liked to call it, and he didn't blame her, but she needed to see the proficiency that a lot of people would have.

It was awkwardly slow at first, but after a minute or so of walking, Alek felt like he was feeling the walker's movements like it was his own. Pausing a moment to listen to the needles whirring and humming reassuringly, Alek broke into a run.

Immediately, his sound detection of the outside world was lost. He could only just hear the whistles and humming of the needles, and while he wasn't panicking, it was slightly worrying that he'd lost some of his control.

Suddenly, the sunlight faded from his face and the heat abruptly stopped. Alek drew the walker to a halt and sniffed, deeply. He smelled pine and sap and the strong smell of clart. A forest seemed the obvious description of it. Listening to the humming of the needles whirring, Alek slowly turned the walker around, until he could feel sunlight once more and starting running again.

Feeling adventurous on what seemed like an open straight of land, Alek jumped, sending a jolt through the runabout and through the ground. He could faintly hear a lot of animals departing the area. Any vestiges of birdsong that had lingered were forgotten.

"Barking Spiders Alek!" shouted Deryn, from his left side. Alek distinctly remembered her standing on his right side before. Unless she'd moved beforehand (which was doubtful as he hadn't heard her or felt a shift in that particular aspect), she'd not been holding onto anything and had been thrown to the side of the walker.

"Sorry Deryn," said Alek, not slowing down as he started to make the walker skip, "Forgot you were there."

"Bovril's in pain now! That's twice he's been shunted off to the wall." Said Deryn.

"In pain! Hurts." agreed the loris, mournfully.

"Sorry Bovril," said Alek as he felt the smell of flowers enter his nostrils.

"It isn't a problem, Alek. Love me more." said the loris and Alek blinked, under his silk tie. Its sentences really were getting more perceptive. Alek slowed to a halt again.

"Are we near a garden, Deryn?" asked Alek.

There was a moment's silence. "Guess." Said Deryn.

Alek rolled his eyes, whatever good that would do. "I'd say we may possibly be near a garden because of the overwhelming scent of flowers. But as it is, I can't smell any clart, which is always near an upkept garden, so it's got to be natural. Yet, there isn't a single animal nearby, which is partially explainable by the walker's presence, so that doesn't really count." Alek was aware he was rambling to himself now, rather than to Deryn. "I'd say it's a wildflower patch?"

He felt Deryn's grip on the chair tighten, just a little. "Aye," she said, a sullen undertone to her voice.

Suddenly, Alek's nose picked up a smell. "Deryn," he said after a moment, "Can you smell engine grease? And not from this vehicle! Somewhere else?"

He heard the sniffing of his friend. "No. But my nose isn't quite as sharp as yours. You've only got four senses at the moment, so they are enhanced. Which direction?" Deryn's sulky tones had disappeared, to be replaced with a cold efficiency

"To my left." said Alek.

"Which would be east…East is towards Germany….." said Deryn.

"You don't think…." Said Alek, a dark thought entering his brain.

"Austria may have surrendered to France, Alek, but Germany is still fighting strong, especially since the Bolsheviks killed Tsar Nicolas and backed out of the war." said Deryn, firmly.

"But to invade this far inland Britain…" said Alek.

"Not that far. Skegness is only a few miles away from the sea. The RAF may not have caught on yet." said Deryn.

"Hard to believe. You said your brother's ship patrols this part of Britain?" asked Alek, pulling the walker into reverse, until he faced the direction of the vague smell.

"Aye. And I can see what you mean, it's hard to believe that they wouldn't spot a German ship. But what if they're otherwise pre-occupied?" asked Deryn, and Alek could feel her grip onto his chair, as he started running towards the smell of engine grease.

"A diversion over there so this ship could get close to Britain?" asked Alek, keeping a close tab on the feet pressure of the walker as the smell grew stronger

"Probably." said Deryn and he could feel her put her gloves on. "I can smell it now. It smells like Istanbul. All the grease and smoke."

"Grease and Smoke." said Bovril, before making a whirring, clanking noise like a zeppelin's engines.

"I suppose we'll be fighting it, then?" asked Alek, aware that if they were close enough for Bovril to hear it, he should have been able to see it, if it wasn't for the blindfold.

"Aye. What do you need me to do?" asked Deryn

"There should be a machine gun below deck. You remember how to use a Spandau machine gun? Same principle. Aim for the engines of the zeppelin, Klopp always said that they're the weakest and yet most important part of the ship. Don't forget, if you can locate the bridge, shoot that too."

"Got it," said Deryn and disappeared below deck. Bovril on the other hand had settled on his shoulder, as he could tell by the feel of soft fur against his cheek and a few claws gripping tight to his epaulettes.

"Fuel is low." said Bovril, before imitating the engines of the zeppelin again.

Alek fumbled for the fuel display. It was dangerously below his expectations. He could only run around 5 to 6 kilometres now, before he ran out all together. Deryn had better be a good shot with a gun.

"When should I fire?" asked Deryn from below.

"How should I know? I can't see it! I can only smell and feel the vague direction its coming from!" screeched Alek, back at her.

"Right. Blindfold. Forgot. Fire at will?" asked Deryn.

"Yep." said Alek as the smell started drifting towards his right. He turned the machine to follow it and heard the sounds of a machine gun and several bangs. He was very good at piloting, but piloting in a battle, blind? Wasn't the best idea.

"Bovril," said Alek, "Can you chew through the tie for me? Or better yet untangle it?"

"I'll try, you wee daftie," came Deryn's voice from the beastie before he felt a nibbling sensation near his hair.

He heard a swoosh coming from the direction of the zeppelin. From the way it coming, Alek knew that unless he moved quickly, it would impact them.

"Moving Starboard!" yelled Alek for Deryn's benefit, before making a sharp turn to the left. He heard and felt it zip past the viewport, colliding with something behind them, creating a shockwave that shook the ground and the walker.

Alek moved the saunters in a crazy dance to remain upright. This would really have been better if he could see where he was stepping. "Bovril, can't you chew any faster?"

"Like to see you try!" it retorted, with Deryn's voice again. Alek recognized the words from earlier that day, and scowled to himself. It was his and her stupid pride that had them stuck in this situation. They would have to get rid of that pride if they were going to get any successful work done for Dr. Barlow.

He heard the sounds of gunfire coming towards them, but none (miraculously) seemed to come through the viewport. He hoped that the runabout's armour was strong enough.

"Deryn, are you okay?" he shouted, as he heard her run underneath where he was sitting.

"I'm fine. I just… Do you know whether this ship has any spare ammo?" she shouted back, sounding a little stressed.

"You've run out?" asked Alek, alarmed.

"Aye Alek! Why else do you think I'd be scampering around like barking message lizard?"

"There isn't any more ammo! This was supposed to be a test run! Anyway, this vehicle isn't meant for real battle, just practice! It's far too small and not nearly armoured enough!" he shouted down again, as he fumbled for the fuel gauge. 4 kilometres. He hoped that the Germans weren't going to move. There was no way they could catch them.

Suddenly he heard Deryn thunder up the stairs. "Deryn?" he asked, feeling confused. "What are you doing?"

"Potatoes," was her only answer, as she went behind him, to the back right area of the bridge, where they had stored their pre-cooked lunch. Roast potatoes was the main agenda, seeing as one of the cheapest foods to buy in the London Market. Why she wanted potatoes would continue to annoy Alek beyond comprehension as she thundered down the stairs once more.

But his attention was diverted by the sound of German gunfire again, this aiming for the viewport, Alek lurched the machine downwards, like a crab, dancing about with the saunters, to make sure the walker wouldn't tip over.

"Do you mind!" roared Deryn from below deck, "A bit of warning next time! The potatoes have gone everywhere! It's a wonder they haven't broken open yet!"

Alek was about to ask her for the purpose of the potatoes when he heard Bovril make the noise of the zeppelin's engines again, dropping the complex airman's knot on his tie. From the way it was sounding….

"Deryn! They're leaving! My fuel's only enough for another four kilometres! Get some semaphore flags and warn the town!"

"No need!" yelled Deryn again, "I'll shoot them down! I only need a few more shots! Get me closer!"

"BUT YOU HAVEN'T GOT ANY AMMO!" yelled Alek, back at her.

"JUST DO IT, YOU DUMMKOPF! THAT'S AN ORDER!" she screeched back and Alek obeyed, following the smell of the engine grease. Bovril went back to chewing.

"Thank you, Bovril. You clever beastie." said Alek. Bovril seemed to be cleverer than Deryn. What was she thinking? How do you go about shooting the Germans down without ammunition?

Once Alek was close enough to hear the engines, he stopped and fumbled for the fuel gauge. Only 1 kilometre left. She'd better be right about what she was doing.

BANG! BANG! BANG! Alek started a little. The machine gun had started up again. "What is she firing with?" Alek mumbled to himself.

"Potatoes." said Bovril, as it paused for breath between nibbling through the knot.

Alek blinked under his silk tie blindfold. There were some days when he really doubted Deryn's sanity. What could potatoes do against a German zeppelin?

If the shockwave going through the ground, had been guessed by Alek to be correct, apparently, it was quite lot. Surely, Deryn hadn't just brought down the German zeppelin with the contents of their lunch?

Just then, the tie fell from his face and Alek blinked at the scene of destruction around them. The Zeppelin had crashed about a kilometre or two away from them. The air balloon itself was punctured with holes and the engine was a smoking wreck.

Deryn climbed back up the stairs, chomping on a potato.

"You did that with potatoes as your ammo?" asked Alek, in disbelief.

"You piloted the whole way through this mess, blindfolded." said Deryn, "We all have our talents. Improvisation is mine. Anyway, it came to me when Dr. Barlow said that there are two components for making an impact. The mass of an object is one. But the velocity is the other. That meteor which caused the whole destruction in Tunguska was tiny! But it was traveling so fast it destroyed so many square miles of forest into rubble! So, I knew that I could use anything as ammo if I could accelerate the speed of it. The roast potatoes seemed to be in the only object that would fit in the compartments in a short space of time. And looked how they punched through the zeppelin balloon!"

Alek merely blinked. "You are insane and completely amazing Deryn. But you are never going to pass for a Clanker boy who had spent 18 years of his life in a walker unless we get you some more practice."

Deryn sighed. "I'm not going to be allowed outside of this walker all week, am I?"

Alek shook his head. 'Nope," he said smugly. "But that shouldn't be too bad a thing. After all you have me for company."

"Get off it, you dummkopf," she said, with a chuckle, before snogging him very completely.

Needless to say, it was a while before they ventured near the German vehicle to help the villagers of Skegness apprehend the Germans (and steal the German engine fuel).


	4. Summer Afternoons

**DALEK WEEK : Summer Afternoons**

Alke had always associated summer afternoons with relaxation. In the morning, he was put through his paces, in politics, fencing, match or languages, by his many tutors, from five in the morning till one o clock in the afternoon when lunch was served. But the summer afternoons were spent with his parents, lazing in the ample amounts of sunlight in their vast properties.

Some days they played tennis, some days they chased each other all over the grass, some days they sunbathed and some days they snoozed. It had all been part of the summer routine and Alek had loved every second of it.

He hadn't experienced proper summer afternoons on the Leviathan, meeting them only in the middle of August, in the middle of the Alps, where the weather was chilly. Needless to say the afternoons of late July and August traveling to Switzerland hadn't been relaxing in the slightest, except perhaps in the piloting of a walker, where he felt the most free.

Now, when he should have been relaxing, in the first summer afternoon of 1915, he was instead painting a living room at Deryn's whims.

The living room of their rental townhouse had been plain white, but they'd noticed the paint was peeling when they'd moved in that spring, but they'd been so busy cataloguing things at the Royal Society and diplomating in other countries, they hadn't had the time to get the paint job done.

Now Deryn had complained that repainting the whole thing white was 'boring', and that they should do a mural in the lounge. Alek had pointed out that it was slightly unwise, considering they were in a rental townhouse, but Deryn had stormed off to her room and had come out an hour later with a sketchy design of what she wanted to paint the lounge like. She'd then showed this design to the landlady, who'd been immensely pleased with it and given them permission to paint it.

Which was why Alek was now balancing precariously on the smallest and wobbliest stepladder he'd ever seen to paint some stupid red apple tree over Deryn, who was attempting to paint some realistic grass beneath him.

"Alek?" she asked after a moment, "Why is it that Dr. Barlow gave us a holiday now?" she asked.

"I don't know. She said something about going to go spend some time with her husband up in the North of the country." said Alek attempting to balance, talk and paint at the same time.

"Yes, but it doesn't make sense!" she said, gesturing wildly, spattering green paint all over herself and Alek. Alek sighed, his black cannions were most definitely ruined, unless paint splattered was the new fashion. Luckily, Deryn had warned him about how messy it was going to be and he'd worn an old, tatty pair from when he'd traipsed all over Austria, but with his lack of money, the loss of any clothes was disastrous.

"God's wounds, Deryn! Could you be any more careless?" said Alek, as he got back to painting.

"Sorry, Alek," she said, but she sounded unapologetic. "It just doesn't make sense. She didn't go to go see her husband when we landed from the Leviathan, so why would she go now? I think it's a cover-up for something else."

Alek nodded vaguely, concentrating more on making the apple he was currently painting look as realistic as Deryn's grass. He'd forgotten just how brilliant she was at drawing.

Just then, from the living room, Bovril wandered in through the door. "Paint Stains!" it shrieked at the top of its voice, mimicking the anger of their landlady when the artist next door had covered the carpet in blue paint. "Paints stains on my carpet!"

Unfortunately, this reminder had the unfortunate effect of causing that accident. Deryn jerked sharply at the sudden sound and managed to knock into Alek, whose grip on the step-ladder was futile at best. Alek fell sideways and the red pot of paint fell with him, splattering the floor, his clothes and Deryn in bright red paint.

Alek sputtered, wiping red paint from his face and white shirt. They were most definitely ruined, as was the carpet. Deryn looked equally annoyed. The paint had covered her in red from head to toe. As it congealed at her corners and dropped off, it looked eerily like blood. Alek shuddered and slowly got up, looking at the scene of destruction ahead of him. They would never get the red out of the cream carpet.

Alek had been right in this being a disastrous venture, but he wished he hadn't been proved right in such an apocalyptic way.

"Bovril!" Alek snapped at the loris. It drooped, looking inconsolable and Alek instantly felt sorry. But looking at his jacket again, he sighed and repeated one of Volger's favourite phrases. "Even a stopped clock is right twice a day."

Deryn sighed and screwed up her eyes. "I suppose there isn't a chance in the world that the carpet is unstained."

Alek shook his head, then realized how futile that was, not to mention, it was spreading green and red paint droplets everywhere. "Nope. It's soaked. And your masterpiece is ruined."

Deryn slumped back to the ground, her eyes now open on the scene of carnage. "My painting we can fix. Another coat of paint and it'll be as good as new. This carpet, on the other hand…."

Alek put his arm around her, despite the fact it got the bottom of his jacket soaked. "Come on Deryn, lets go take a shower, there's nothing we can do for this carpet."

(X)

After some cold water, Alek came back to the living room, rubbing his wet hair with a towel, still wearing his colour-spotted clothes. As he entered the room, he stopped, dead still.

The carpet's colour had vanished. All of it was cream. And the walls were exactly as they had been before the painting job. Alek shuddered and pinched himself. How could this have happened? He wasn't dreaming now, so maybe he had been dreaming before.

He had to ask Deryn. He darted back to her bedroom and barged in without knocking. She was still getting dressed, buttoning her shirt, walking around in bloomers.

"Deryn!" he yelled and she coloured immediately and wrapped her towel round her quickly.

"What is it, Alek!" she said, her usually pale face going a bright shade of red, the same as the paint on his shirt.

"We spilled paint all over the living room, didn't we? The carpet was gone for good, right?"

Deryn nodded. "Yes, you dummkopf, that's why your clothes are covered in paint."

Alek waved his hands wildly in the air. "Just…just…. COME WITH ME!" he exclaimed, grabbing her hand, leaving her towel behind in her room. He took her to the living room and she gasped.

"Alek? How- Did you do this?" she said.

Alek should have taken the credit. Really he should have. Unfortunately, he was sincerely awful at lying and shook his head. "No. I didn't. I just walked in and it was like this."

Deryn stared and crouched on the floor where she'd been painting. She ran her hand through the carpet and frowned, as if confused.

"What's wrong Deryn?" asked Alek, crouching next to her.

"I thought maybe someone had come in and put cream paint all over the carpet, but there's no paint like traces at all. It's just wet. Like it's just been soaked in water. Thing is, water doesn't get rid of paint."

Alek shuddered. "Both of those options leave the rather unsavoury idea that someone else apart from our landlord can sneak into here at any time without us noticing. What if they've come in before? What might they have seen?"

Deryn, who had been gradually turning back to her usual Glaswegian skin colour, had now turned bright red again. "I'm really hoping for an alternate explanation. Because I'm not too happy with that rationalization."

Alek shook his head, there had been far too many private moments between them in this flat. "Maybe this is their first time entering the house?" he said, venturing that perhaps this mysterious benefactor hadn't seen Deryn and Alek in some more intimate positions.

Deryn scowled. "It's a nice explanation, but unlikely."

Alek sighed. "I don't know. I just don't know."

"I'm hungry," said Deryn, "Let me grab some potatoes."

Alek shook his head fondly and made way for her to enter the kitchen. A sound of loud, raucous laughter came from the kitchen. Alek walked in leisurely.

"What is it, Deryn?" he asked and she continued to laugh, tears leaking out from her eyes in mirth, as she pointed towards the kitchen table in the corner. A paint-covered Bovril was fast asleep on a teatowel. It seemed that it had somehow, miraculously cleaned the whole carpet and wall using the paint removers that lay empty next to the bin.

Bovril seemed to sleepily stir at the sound of Alek's laughter joining Deryn's. Deryn recovered first and picked up the beastie, kissing his fur enthusiastically.

"Good beastie! Aye, you're an amazing, wee beastie aren't you? You just saved Alek and I from a lot of shouting!"

She nuzzled it quickly and placed it back on the table as it purred in delight. Alek scratched it behind its ears. "A stopped clock is right twice a day." He said, mischievously and Bovril snapped at his fingers.

"Not so," it said calmly, before going back to sleep.


	5. World War II

**DALEK WEEK : World War II**

**AN: This is a mini sequel to my DALEK WEEK Entry for Parents and a part of my ongoing story Musing of a Mother. Go read that for this to make a little more sense (if you haven't already!)**

It was the year 1941 and Britain was at war again. Despite the smoothing attempts between Dr. Barlow, Count Volger, Alek, the King George and many other countless officials, the Nazi Party in Germany had prevailed and the appeasement tactic of hoping that Hitler would go away had been continued by the Right Honorable (more like right idiot) Neville Chamberlain.

Which meant that it was a dangerous time to fly an airship. But Deryn was confident in that fact that they wouldn't be attacked. After all, this was the first commercial fabricated airship with intended Clanker engines. Nearly all the countries in Europe, Asia and America had stakes on it and today was the first day of its maiden flight. December 6th.

Deryn leant against the wall of the Main Hall as the dancing couples swished by. She was sure that Alek would have dragged her onto the floor if she hadn't been on duty today. She rolled her eyes; she was Captain of this ship, she could hardly go gallivanting off along the dance floor when it was her duty time!

Deryn peered out the window next to her and checked the altitude. They were high above the clouds, which gave the dance a chilly venue. Luckily, it was Christmas in a couple of weeks, so it set the atmosphere nicely. It seemed there were genuinely nice air conditions, so she had left the bridge to oversee some dancing.

The engine pods started smoking and Deryn rolled her eyes. This had been a common occurrence in test runs and Deryn had hoped that the cantankerous Clanker engines might have put off breaking down for just one day. She gestured to Alek, who was busy chatting to Lady Rothchild. He looked disappointed, it must have been a riveting conversation, but made his excuses and left to oversee repairs.

Deryn smiled and relaxed. A commercial airship had been Alek's dream in the first place, created in the heat of the summer of 1924, but over these long years toiling over it, it had became her child, just as much as Lilia had. Both the airship and Lilia had grown up together side-by-side and she loved both, just as equally.

Thinking of Lilia made her wonder how Lilia was faring in the heart of Germany. Dr. Barlow had asked for Deryn to recommend a plucky young woman from the air force, where Deryn had consulted with, until very recently.

Lilia had overheard this conversation and volunteered to be a spy in the administration of the German government.

Her daughter's talents were immense. She could speak four languages fluently, three languages haltingly and a few basic terms in another six. She could fix a clanker engine, but was fascinated by natural science. She was plucky and daring and stubborn, but followed instructions when she needed to. But she couldn't do anything musical. That had been a major failing that Lilia had deeply regretted but Deryn had secretly chuckled over when her daughter wasn't looking. It wasn't funny of course, but Deryn found it ironic that her graceful daughter, who could be like a woman and like a man so fluently, couldn't dance or sing or play.

Lilia had the Aryan looks, mostly. She was tall, had blue eyes, spoke German perfectly and was posing as a pure-born German. The only 'failing', in Hitler's eyes would be her reddish brown hair she had inherited from Alek. Deryn thought it was far more beautiful than her own stringy, blonde hair, but Alek had calmly told her that she had no idea of her own worth.

Suddenly there was a jolt and the airship slowed down considerably, adding turbulence to the flight, pulling Deryn out of her musings. The people of the airship looked panicked and glanced around frantically and Deryn knew if she looked worried, there would surely be a stampede.

"Stay calm, everybody! This was a defect we often saw in the test runs. It's nothing dangerous or anything to be concerned about. Just the Clanker engines throwing a hissy fit again!" The Darwinists in the crowd laughed and the engineers cracked a grin. "Please stay in here, and I'll update you all when the engines are working. Have another drink!"

Deryn needed her speech and walked smoothly towards the door. In an aside to the vice-captain who was standing near the door, she said, "Make sure the officers aren't drunk. They ought to be perfectly sober. If they aren't, send them to bed. We can't have liabilities. Send someone to wake up the strafing hawks. In case that something's wrong in the army sense. The engines are actually fine. Alek had to have fixed them. This is something else."

The vice –captain nodded. "Should we continue to keep the passengers calm?"

Deryn nodded. "Aye, please do. Just keep the entrances and exits clear and regulated. If there is trouble, I don't want any stampedes, injuries or death due to overly-panicked or zealous people? Understand?"

When the Vice-Captain nodded, Deryn swept out of the room, ditching her dress jacket onto the coat rack as she past it, without slowing down. Deryn rolled up her sleeves where she had a knife strapped to her arm. She rubbed it before rapping on the bridge door.

The bosun opened the door and let her in without a word. "What's the news? What's wrong?" Deryn asked as she stepped up to the wheel.

"We have a problem." said the ship's doctor. "We're under attack."

Deryn whirled around to stare at him. "WHAT!" she said, looking distressed, "By who?"

The bosun bit his lip. "We think it's the Japanese, Captain."

Deryn blinked, attempting to remember what Dr. Barlow had been saying to her about the war a week ago. The Japanese wanted to expand their empire and power. There had been many attempts to claim some of the smaller island close to Japan, a lot of which had been prevented by US soldiers. Japan were furious with the USA. And this was a ship that was made possible by USA funding donations, while the Japanese had no interest or investments placed in the ship, like the Germans and Italians. How could she have forgotten that?

"Then we should get ready to attack them as well, aye? If they launch another attack on us, release the strafing hawks. They should be ready by now. Get the midshipmen and the riggers who can be spared on the airguns and get the senior officers evacuating passengers from their rooms towards the Main Hall. Tell them to keep the dancing going; it'll keep them pre-occupied and calm. And someone, for god's sake, send a radio message out for help! We have civilians on board!'

Deryn barked out the orders and the Bridge quickly left to go follow them. Deryn placed her hands on the wheel and looked out towards the Japanese aircraft. It was also a hydrogen breather, Japan being a pre-dominantly Darwinist country, but the last time she had been there, there was been a wodge of different technologies mixed together.

But this hydrogen breather was a war ship and she could see the flechette bats coming this way. Deryn's eyes widened and reached for the loud-speaker. No time to baby the passengers.

"This is your Captain, Deryn Sharp speaking. Officers, we are under attack. The Japanese have released flechette bats towards us, and I have no doubt that there are kappas beneath us, in the sea to destroy us completely. Release the strafing hawks and get some red light towards the bats! That confuses them! Use the lights from the Main Hall if you have to! Engines, to full reverse!"

She heard no response to her answers, but her crew were obedient and she had no doubt that her orders would be followed. Deryn sighed and pushed her fingers through her hair. She wanted nothing more than to be out on the riggings herself, doing Herculean inundations or ascending maneuvers or sliding escapes, but she was captain and needed to stay in the bridge in case there were any communications.

On the communications note… "This is Deryn Sharp, Captain of the Philistine, contacting Japanese vessel, Kitsune. Are you aware that we are a commercial ship, over?"

Deryn traced her hands over the wireless communication device. She had been loathe to employ Tesla's invention on this ship, but he had been a genius and this communication was far more effective than telegrams were.

The telecommunications device crackled to life underneath her fingertips and Deryn waited for the response. "Philistine," said the smooth, English voice, "This is Captain Toko Hatsuki of the Kitsune. We are well aware that you are an American commercial ship, over."

Deryn swore, they were well aware. She had been hoping otherwise. "First things first, we are not American, we are a malgasm of most of the countries in the world. Second, why in god's name are you then attacking us? Over."

Deryn still looked in concern at the flock of flechette bats heading their way. She could see the red light emanating from below deck, but they didn't seem to be having as much effect as the German gyrothopter had gotten, back when she had been on the Leviathan. Unfortunately, the German gyrothopter had then crashed, killing the man, so Deryn wasn't too keen on that method.

"You are in our path. And we have orders, over." said the smooth voice, a smug undertone to it

"At least let us evacuate, even if you don't want the ship to survive," said Deryn, "We have around three thousand civilians on board. If you'll let us evacuate them, you can blow up the ship, over."

Deryn hated compromises, and if it had been the Leviathan, she would never have done it. As it was, several key influential civilians were on board, and she couldn't risk their deaths without major diplomatic consequences. They came first, not the ship, nor the beasties on it. And it killed her inside. She wished she had Bovril with her now, to make this difficult decision, but Bovril was in the engine pods with Alek.

The Vice Captain burst into the room just as the Japanese Captain said, "No. I don't believe we shall. Prepare to die, Mr. Sharp."

The crackling of the telecom morphed into a steady beeping sound and Deryn swore angrily, hitting the table. Not only were they barking clart-filled bumrags, but they had called her a boy as well.

"You were negotiating?" asked the Vice-Captain.

"Yes, Mr Faust. I was hoping, that perhaps he thought we were an army vehicle. They know perfectly well that we're commercial and they'll kill us anyway."

Mr Faust looked downwards. "I've…disobeyed orders, Captain."

Deryn turned towards him, sharply. "How so, Mr. Faust?" she snapped.

"I've started evacuating the passengers off the ship. In the smaller hydrogen breathers with the air guns. Four officers each and 30 passengers in the boat. Families first. I leant something from the Titanic crash. Not just women and children."

Deryn relaxed. 'That's fine, Mr Faust. That's reasonable. As long as there are still enough officers to man the main ship."

He looked relieved and Deryn smiled. "Do you have a family back home?" asked Deryn as the telegram machine finished printing its answer. She glanced at it and her face burst into a smile.

"Yes," he said, "A wife and two daughters."

"Go home to them, then." said Deryn, "Get in one of the escape ships and go home to them Captain. The Japanese won't shoot. There's about 10 miles to the coast of Mexico. And the _Belphegor_ shall distract them for us or collect the drifting ships."

He looked surprised. "But ma'am," he said, as he grabbed his jacket, "What about you? Don't you have a daughter? I met her once."

Deryn laughed. "Who said that I was planning to be a matyr? No, I spent 16 years of my life creating this ship; I'm not letting it explode now. Sound the ballast alert. Anything that can be thrown off will be. Food included. This ship will soar once most of the weight of passengers and luggage are removed. I'm headed down to the engine pods. I'll need to oversee them."

The Vice-Captain pulled off his glove and saluted. She grinned. "Go on. And, if you are going to the Main Hall, find Amelia Earhart for me. Tell her to find some plucky people who would be willing to clamber all over the ship and have some air-sense!" said Deryn, as she strode out of the bridge.

She was halfway towards the engine pods when the ship shuddered and sent her flying into the wall. "Sorry Beastie!" she called, before she started to sprint down the thin aluminium strip that was a floor. She may have been 42, but she'd be damned if she'd lost her touch.

She rapped sharply on the engine pods door, but there was no reply. They probably couldn't hear her. Deryn pushed the door but there was no response. It must have gotten jammed. Deryn sighed and stood back. Taking a deep breath, she rammed the heel of her foot next the lock and the wood easily splintered, but didn't break. Deryn took another breath, and kicked it again, this time a little higher, testing her flexibility. The door still wouldn't completely break, but there was a large hole in there.

"Alek, you dummkopf! Come and open the barking door!" she yelled into the engine pod, to the astonished faces of the engineers inside.

Alek quickly hurried from where he was standing in the centre of the engine pods. He was covered in grease and his hair was sleeked back. Deryn frowned; they were still on full forward.

"Didn't you get the message to go to full speed reverse?" asked Deryn as Alek pulled the door open in relief.

"Nothing," said Alek, "The first shot fired was at us. It didn't do too much to the engines but it knocked out our receiver. FULL SPEED REVERSE!" he yelled bellowed and everyone in the engine pods started tapping away and pulling at levers.

"We're evacuating most of the ship onto the smaller hydrogen breathers. If any of your men want to escape to go onto the _Belphegor_ and dock in back in the USA or Mexico, they are more than welcome. Some of the last ships are going now." said Deryn. No one spoke up.

Alek quickly repeated what Deryn had said into French and Deryn quickly translated it into German. Still no one spoke.

"If I may," said Mr. Patel, one of the Indian engineers, in crystal clear English, "I have no family to await me and this ship was one of my life's dedications. I won't abandon it now and I doubt that you are, Captain."

Deryn smiled and shook her head. "A ballast alert has been sounded. Once the weight of the passengers and all the spare luggage and food has been thrown away, The Philistine should rise high up into the clouds. The Japanese airship will not be able to follow us. Not unless they throw the majority of their crew out of the ship, which I doubt even they would do. Collateral damage usually isn't trained officers or mercenaries."

All of those that could follow English looked pretty happy with the plan. "Mr. Patel," said Deryn, "I shall have to go to top deck to supervise some civilians who want to do some flying work for us. You are in charge here and I shall send Bovril down if there are any changes to engine speed."

Mr. Patel nodded and Alek quickly repeated the plan in French and German to the rest of the people working in the engines. Everyone seemed satisfied, so Deryn grabbed Alek's hand and they left the engine pods, leaving a splintered door behind them.

Once they were in the main deck, Alek grabbed her hands and kissed her firmly. Deryn didn't resist but once he paused for breath, she broke into a sprint pulling him with her.

"Deryn, I love you!" he said as they ran.

'I know, you ninny! I do too!" said Deryn, "But we aren't becoming matyrs today. We'll live on, I promise you. Now come on, hurry up!"

They sprinted up past the Main Hall to the Top Deck where Deryn spotted Amelia Earhart straight off. There were next to no ship officers around, but a lot of luggage was being thrown off the ship, so Deryn had no doubt they were all busy.

"I need all of you brave souls to climb the rigging. There are hydrogen leaks everywhere, and if we want to ascend and leave the Japanese ship behind, they'll need to be fixed." Ducking behind a potted plant, Deryn opened the drawer full of the tape that the Army used. "The sniffer dogs aren't currently available, so I'll need you to work in teams of three or four to try and spot as many as you can. Use this tape to close up the holes and don't get shot!" commanded Deryn.

"Amelia," said Deryn, "You're in charge. You've got a head for heights and you were on the test run of the Philistine. Can you show them how to harness themselves and clip into the ropes? All of the equipment is in that room over there, if the crew haven't chucked it out already."

Amelia nodded and saluted. Deryn nodded casually before grabbing Alek's hand and sprinting towards the bridge.

She could hear the guns leveling towards the engines and crossed her fingers for all of the soldier's lives as she spun the wheel, northwards, upwards as the Philistine rose slowly, escaping the gunfire.

"Alek," she asked, as she turned the ship around, "Can you man the telegram? Send one to the British Embassy and to the German Embassy. Tell them what has happened to us. Tell them that we are now officially a war vessel attempting to prevent a Japanese attack on us and presumably, the USA! Tell them that Japan is officially involved in the Second World War!"

**AN: This is set right before Pearl Harbour. The Pearl Harbour attack was on the morning of the 7th, meaning that Deryn and the Philistine have intercepted the main Japanese aircraft attempting to bomb Pearl Harbour. I've obviously changed a few things. For one, Japan sent 353 planes to ruin all eight of the US's naval battleships. Here, there is just one, very large ship with a lot of firepower. **

**I leave what happened next to up to you. Did they succeed in keeping the Philistine afloat and stopped the Pearl Harbour attack? Did they save themselves but doom the 3600 men and women injured or killed by the bombs in America? Did they become matyrs and go down with the ship? Up to you. And, as additional info, in this universe, Amelia Earhart didn't die in 1938. Instead, she and Fred Noonan were rescued by some kraken just off the coast of Howland island, where she went onto worldwide fame and renown. **


	6. Obsession

**DALEK WEEK: Obsession**

**AN: This prompt idea was really difficult for me, because this really should called for some fluff, but I am tremendously awful at writing intentional fluff, which means this prompt could only go in the direction that I am also pretty bad at. Angst. This prompt is an AU version of the ending of Goliath (done often, I know!) where Alek remembers his duty, long enough to help Austria. **

"Knew what?" asked Deryn, and he leaned forward to kiss her. Her lips were soft but Alek could only think of how beautiful she was. A mask had been lifted. She did, finally, look like a girl to him, an amazing, wonderful girl.

"Oh. That." She said, looking stunned yet happy at the same time. Alek found his eyes focusing on her face, drinking in the shy and yet triumphant smile, embedding it's exquisite detail to his memory.

"Barking Spiders," said Bovril and Alek laughed just a little. But even that kiss and her smile and her hair swaying in the breeze of the deck, didn't ease his pain of what was coming next.

"I think I might, possibly love you, Deryn." He said, with a shy laugh and she kissed him back. Then her gaze flickered to the riggers on the spine, with the hydrogen sniffers, and he knew that she too saw the problems in their relationship.

And, his heart tearing in two, he lifted out the leather scroll. "It's a bit tricky, isn't it?"

It felt like he had just been kneed in the stomach, when her face turned to dismay and she turned her face and stepped away. The sadness in her eyes was heartbreakingly beautiful and Alek gripped her hands.

"Of course," she said, her voice quiet and choked, "No one's going to write me a letter to turn me royal, are they? And I'd hardly make a proper princess, even if the pope himself sewed me a dress. This is all ridiculous."

"No," said Alek. "I couldn't do that to you. Stuff you into a role you'd never fit into. You'd be miserable. You were born to fly. And I was born to rule. At least, that's what Volger says. Thing is, I don't think Austria really needs a monarch for too long. It's on the verge of collapse now. The royal families won't last for too long, now."

Deryn's face looked slightly calmer. "That's what Dr. Barlow said. You'd be important whether you were royal or not."

"They'll only need me for a little while. Once Emperor Franz Joseph dies, I'll be in charge. The Vatican are sure to validate it, once the old man's dead. It would cause civil uprising, otherwise. And I'd pull them out of the war, if it still exists when he croaks. Then I'd rebuild the country. Use the Hapsburg money to prop up the economy of our country, then give the people an elected leader that would rule. The Republic of Austria."

Deryn seemed to be looking hopeful, but it was hidden under a thin veneer of an emotion that Alek couldn't identify. Her expression was dazzling and for a moment, Alek couldn't take his eyes off her.

"It worked for America, didn't it?" he asked and she nodded.

"And then?" she asked, as if unable to believe it.

"Isn't it obvious?" he asked, placing his arms on her shoulders. "Then I'll find you. Wherever you are, I'll come to you and we can plan our life from there."

She bent down to kiss him and Alek felt his arms intertwine with hers. For a moment, one breathless moment, there was no his and her, just a deeply in love individual. Then the magical moment ended and they stepped apart.

They stared at each other, memorizing each other's faces, so vividly. He brushed his fingers over her cheek and she held his hand there.

"I'll miss you," she whispered.

"And I." said Alek.

"And I," repeated Bovril mournfully. Both of them jerked in surprise.

"Where does Bovril go?" asked Deryn, looking worried. Alek looked at the loris. He valued its advice, perhaps more than he would value some flatterer's advice. It was perspicacious and he would most likely need it over his career. But from the heartbroken expression etched on her face, Alek, placed Bovril on her shoulder.

"Keep him. Train him. Teach him." Said Alek and she nodded. Then Alek pulled out his tiny pocket knife. Deryn looked at it with a hint of suspicion. "You want to make a blood oath?" she asked, dully.

"No!" he said, emphatically. Then hesitantly, "You do that?"

Deryn shook her head. 'Some do, though." She added. "What do you need the knife for then?"

"A keepsake," said Alek, and cut a lock of her hair from her head as gently as he could.

She placed a hand to it. "Sentimental of you," she said dryly, "Will you put it inside a pocket watch so a princess somewhere will get jealous?"

Alek laughed and kissed her again, just to feel her body pressed against his for the last time.

(X)

Alek did one last interview with Eddie Malone, explaining his intentions for the country of Austria, how he'd remove it from the war and rebuild it where commoners and nobles could be the same (a dream that looked increasingly more difficult by the day). Eddie's face had been priceless and the outrage that the article had received was immense.

Alek could only be reminded of Deryn by the article, because it was the kind of outrage she created just by being there. She was awfully awkward in diplomatic situations and it had always made him chuckle just a little. Volger had been furious by the article, complaining that now the Germans would take him as a proper target and 'what happened to lying low?'

Alek had shrugged it all off. His people needed hope. The rest of the world needed to see that he was serious about this. He knew he had just obliterated his last chance to quietly sneak away from the scene and marry Deryn in the sidelines. He was an important diplomat now. Of course, he'd also withdrawn his funding from the Tesla Foundation. Now he knew that Tesla was a fraud, what good would his money do there? Better that his country would have it.

Duty would out. His father would have been proud.

(X)

Emperor Franz Joseph died on New Years Day 1916. Alek was crowned the Emperor of Austro-Hungary on January 31st 1916, the day of his birthday. He should have been happy, but all her could feel was a bitter sense of loss. (That night he dreamt of golden hair and a teasing laugh, just out of reach.)

The first thing that Alek did once he was crowned Emperor was use everything to pull Austria out of the war. Germany attempted to cling tight to Austria-Hungary, and he had been faced with four assassination attempts, but Alek survived all of them, albeit with an injury or two. The soldiers of the Empire were called home on March 3rd.

The war ended just two weeks later, with the mental breakdown of Erich Ludendorff, followed by the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II, causing outcries in the streets for the war to end and for the people to be able to eat well again. Germany was plunged into chaos and the British (presumably prompted by Nora Barlow, proprietor of peace) offered them a temporary loan of money if the Germans surrendered the War.

Alek now focused his attempts on getting a scope for what the people wanted for the country. He pumped the Hapsburg wealth into the country, all 90 million Kronen, to rebuild homes, recompense families and create new job opportunities. His mornings were filled with paperwork and aristocracy, pleading he reconsider his plans, but his afternoons were filled with petitioners who needed money or help to restart their lives or touring the country, just talking to the locals.

It was here that Alek truly realized just how impoverished his people had been under his grandfather's rule. And when Alek asked all of them, what they really wanted, they'd said gold or money or love or happiness. Alek couldn't provide those things to his country, which often left him sad.

(When he was touring the country, he met a little girl with blonde hair, blue eyes and sharp, fine features. The moment she started talking, she emanated a manner he had seen in Deryn and it had taken all of Alek's self-constraint to not invite her with him to the palace. That night he'd dreamed of her and him in Japan, walking over the lover's bridge)

His realization of what his people wanted was fulfilled when he asked a group of teenagers what they wanted. They weren't much younger than him but all they asked for the same thing: 'freedom', 'choice', 'the ability to choose', 'that their voices were heard,'. And Alek knew that this was something he could give them and something he wanted to give them.

(That night he'd dreamt of their first kiss, in that storm, with the wind battering away at them.)

(X)

A meeting was called in the autumn of 1916, to decide what to do with Germany now that its economy was marginally more stable.

Woodrow Wilson, Lloyd George, The Kizlar Agha and Georges Clemenceau all attended, ready to take revenge. Alek also came, much to the surprise of many of the leaders, on Germany's side. He'd insisted that to be fair, if Germany was punished, his country too, be punished. His actions were questioned of course, by his own people and the rest of the world, whether he was secretly on Germany's side, had they really chased him to Switzerland, trying to kill him?

Alek had managed to prove himself quite neutral and someone who yearned for the world to be fair and had asked if Britain and France were willing to pass a good judgment, or were they just there for revenge? He'd silenced them then, they unable to give an answer.

There were many things about the treaty of Versailles that were unfair and Alek hammered away at the Anglo-French team of revenge to give Germany a fairer sentence, and to his surprise, he was backed by America and Japan in his determination to not alienate a whole nation.

He won and Austria-Hungary and Germany were punished fairly. Their armies were reduced, the reparations were minimal and only two of Germany's colonies were re-assigned to Britain and France.

Alek had proud of himself then. After all, his father had once said that revenge was like a plume of smoke. It seems tangible, but once you reach for it, you're grasping at nothing but air. There was no reason behind revenge but self-righteousness and ego. He wondered whether Deryn would have agreed with him.

(He still imagined her good advice on days and wondered whether he'd be achieving things faster if she had been at his side. Then he remembered her hatred of being trapped on the earth, and her loathing of wearing skirts, and Alek found himself unable to imagine her beside him for another week)

(X)

Alek matured. He learnt more, knew more and grew more. He shoulders broadened, he grew taller and his voice grew deeper. He also started having to shave, which was a nuisance, adding an extra hour to his preparation time to be the vision of the perfect Emperor.

(He wondered sometimes, in the night how Deryn and Bovril were growing and changing. He wondered whether the sharp angles in her face and body would curve and whether she too was growing taller. With his luck, she was still probably taller than he would ever be.)

As he grew older, he also knew that more attention was placed upon him as a ruler. His empire was decreasing. Already, Poland and Romania now had larger territories, as part of the reparations given to them by the Treaty of Versailles, but now, he had also given a part of the empire a constitutional agreement to rule themselves. They were calling themselves Czechoslovakia and Alek had happily handed over his power to make them a republic.

Maybe seeing their prosperity, his people would be more likely to embrace the idea. It hadn't gone well, his proposal of a republic of Austria, with politicians and leaders who were voted in by the people rather than chosen by their ambitions and the family they were born to. Especially not with the aristocrats. Some had shunned him and moved their wealth to other countries. Others called for his cousin Charles to be placed on the throne but Alek stood tall above it all. They needed to understand

So he called for those same children to come to a political session. And he asked them what they wanted. And they said the same things to the politicians. And they understood. Most of them didn't agree but they understood.

His own country understands, but others don't. With the end of the war arriving so quickly, many countries are singularly fine. Barely any suffered any overly large death tolls or money loss and the European royal families stay in power, if for a little longer. Alek sees now, what Dr. Barlow had seen. The royal families, if they continued their excessive lifestyles, would be deposed. It was clear to Alek now, in a way that it hadn't been before.

The royal families needed to change. Then started a long campaign to implant the idea of abdication to the people in other royal families. The first he talked to were the Russian Royal Family. As Volger had pointed out, Russia seemed the most unstable. Yet, Tsar Nicholas II didn't seem to understand what he was proposing. Stepping down seemed preposterous, now the danger was over. All he seemed to want to do was engage his second daughter, the Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna Romanova, to Alek.

Alek had had to kindly explain that he wasn't even thinking about marriage proposals, much to the annoyance of the elder two siblings and delight of the younger two.

There had been attempts to convince him to marry her over his stay, from both Russia and from his Austrian politicians. He knew what they were thinking; if he were married, that he wouldn't have time to think of these ridiculous proposals. Equality for all, what nonsense.

(He speculated whether he'd stop thinking these ideas if he married Deryn and shook it off. If anything, she would have encouraged him.)

Alek had calmly informed Tsar Nicolas, that unless he changed his extravagant ways, his family would fall to the wrath of the Russian people. Nicolas had laughed him out of the country.

(He wondered what Deryn would have thought of this extravagance. She had been quite disgusted by shows of strength and pomp and Alek was starting to adopt her opinion. That night he dreamt of her body against his, as one person as they had been for just a moment on the top of the Leviathan.

(X)

The people became more and more accepting of the idea of freedom but the aristocracy held tighter and tighter to the hierarchy. Alek had gotten another assassination attempt, which had failed, due to the brilliance of Volger's Hapsburg guards. But Alek was tired of it. Why wouldn't they just accept this republic? Alek didn't want to be monarch. And this was the best path for the country.

He wondered when he'd be able to persuade them when the final piece fell into place. Hungary wanted out of the Empire. They wanted to just be Hungary. The politicians were in uproar when Alek had quietly agreed, telling him that the backbone of their empire would disappear, just like his had. Alek had lost his temper, shouting about how the country was flawed and how the would all eventually fall to the tides of change. He had blethered about the collapse of the role of a monarch and how the new age of a republic, still had room for the aristocracy.

He told them he was in love and that he wanted out of the monarchy. He told them he just wanted to be normal and that unless a fair, just republic was set up, he couldn't leave. The hall had been silenced. Alek had dismissed them all, and once they had left, he burst into tears.

He wanted her hugs. He wanted her smiles. He wanted her casual demeanor. He wanted to just see her again and for her to tell him that it was all okay. He wanted a mad-cap adventure where there would be no consequences and most of all, he wanted her love.

Volger had been furious but Alek was tired and disillusioned by it all. The war was long over, but peace seemed a foreign prospect amidst all this anger and quarrelling.

(He'd gone to visit that little girl again. She was nearly 12 now and wanted to pilot a walker. She wasn't allowed to because she was a girl. Alek had told her to follow her dreams, with a lump in his throat. He knew this story. He knew how it would work out. May it be happier for her than it had been for he or Deryn.)

(X)

It was 1919 before the aristocrats gave in. The empire was dissolved, just Austria left. The country was finally ready to govern herself. Alek called for voting amongst the people and five candidates were left. Of these candidates, another vote was drawn and a man called Karl Seitz was placed in charge of the country.

Alek wished him well and told him to rule the country wisely, and with that, he dissolved the Austrian Monarchy, much to the anger of the rest of the Hapsburgs. The Hapsburg wealth became the country's wealth and Alek was left with just a single gold bar.

He was free.

(X)

It had taken all the persuasion that Alek possessed, to manage to get himself one of the last seats on the ship across from France to Britain. It seemed that the British didn't care how much money you had, you weren't allowed to overtake people in the priority queue. It was fair but Alek was fed up of fairness. What had fairness brought him but an empty cavity where his heart should have been?

He reached London on the 22nd of December. It was wonderful, filled with fabrications. It was fresh and filled with life. There was no over-encompassing smog as there had been in Austria. It had taken him a while to stop staring and find the post office.

There, he'd inquired to the location of a Dylan Sharp. He still hadn't heard news of Deryn's identity, so unless the government were covering it, up, she hadn't revealed herself yet. She had claimed her home in Scotland, but she had an office in the sleepy town of Maidenhead. It had taken a day to charter an oxenesque to take him there. He'd had no idea that the British needed so much paperwork to hire something as mundane as transport.

This meant that it was on the 24th of December that Alek finally found himself looking onto the location of her office. His hand was in his coat pocket, clutching the locket which contained a lock of her hair. He wondered how she'd changed. Whether she'd changed.

He walked in. A brown haired man with a thin face was at the front desk. It read Receptionist. Alek assumed he had to talk to him.

"Hello," he said, "I'm here to see a Mr. Dylan Sharp."

"Appointment time?" asked the man boredly, not even looking up.

"I don't have one." said Alek coolly.

The man glanced up, looking amused. 'Then why in Darwin's name, are you here?"

Alek rolled his eyes. "Just tell he-him. Him, that Alek is waiting for him."

The boy sighed, looking dull. "Fine. Stay here. But don't expect anything, he's very busy!"

Alek sat himself down the waiting room and twisted the locket between his fingers. He wondered how she'd changed. He knew that he had changed in his years ruling Austria, but he'd still been imagining the girl who'd saved him from death. In fact, one of his only sources for her face was the picture taken by Malone of her saving the Dauntless.

His fingers tapped against the cool wood of his chair, he was impatient. The receptionist came back quickly, his face pale. "She'll see you." He said and Alek noticed the word 'she' with startling clarity. "Third floor, the immediate right."

He wondered whether she'd just revealed it to the man or whether he was merely surprised that Alek knew Deryn's secret. Alek took the stairs up, due to the fact that the Von Seimen's electric elevators didn't seem to be installed in Britain. He wondered whether Deryn climbed up these stairs every day.

He rapped lightly on the fabricated wooden door, that had the panel, 'Doctor Dylan Sharp', installed into the surface. "Come in!" came the voice that Alek had been remembering for years. It was a little deeper and a little hoarser, but it was recognizable as hers.

He walked through the door and there she was. His obsession for nearly 6 years. Her hair was still cropped short like a man's, but her uniform looked a lot more dressy than her middy's uniform. There were three medals hung up on the wall instead of one. Alek finally glanced at her face. There were lines around her mouth that hadn't been there before and a scar down the right side of her face, but she was still beautiful and the one thing that hadn't changed was the mirth in her glistening blue eyes.

"Deryn…" he said and she smiled, looking at him.

"Alek." She said. She stood up and Alek immediately noticed that their heights were finally equal. She moved to close the door, before Alek kissed her. Her lips were still soft but her touch ignited his skin. She pushed him towards the wall and just looked at him.

"Gods, Alek. You look so different!" she said, sounding breathless.

"You haven't changed a bit." He said, putting a hand through her hair. She put her hands over it and squeezed. It was too much for Alek and he felt tears trickling from his eyes.

"Alek?" she asked, sounding concerned, stepping away from him. "What's wrong?"

"You aren't an illusion?" he asked, "You won't disappear in the morning?"

"No Alek. I'm here for good. And you'd better be too." She said, before kissing him ferociously, her hands moving to unbutton his jacket.

Once their clothes were loosened, Alek felt like he could breathe again. He placed her head on her shoulder and she laughed.

""By the way Alek, Merry Christmas."

(X)

_Sensational news had been released that one Dylan Sharp, esteemed and highly awarded official in the Army and personal assistant of Dr. Nora Darwin Barlow is actually known to most as Deryn Sharp, daughter of the late Artemis Sharp of Scotland! This news comes under lieu of Deryn's resignment from her army career. When asked what she wanted to do next, the answer was "To live."_

_Eddie Malone_


	7. Generations Part 1

**DALEK WEEK: Generations**

**AN: I think that this entry to the DALEK Week needs a little more of an explanation than any of the other prompts. When I saw the theme Generations, a story that has been weaving its way around my head immediately popped to mind. It's a long story, one that's unlikely to get written, but I wanted to start on its introduction here for this prompt. **

**It's a modern day fiction and one that is slightly strange. I have read several fictions about Leviathan being set in the modern world, but I found some a little too angst-centric for my liking. That's why I'm writing my own 'Modern-Day-Leviathan' fic. **

Alek's mother had told him to have fun as he'd left for the airport. She had told him to make friends and generally enjoy himself and to 'take care!'. His father, on the other hand had told him to study hard and come back a wiser, more accomplished man. Alek was unsure which path he should follow, for it seemed that they wouldn't intersect.

Alek himself was still skeptical as to the need for him to go to boarding school now of all times. However, both of his parents had surprisingly agreed on the need for him to interact with his peers. Alek had tried to dissuade them, but the awkward meeting with the Princess of Sweden had shown exactly how much aptitude he had at people skills.

Being around children his age shouldn't have been a problem, but Alek was the son of the President of the Republic of Austria. His Father, Franz Ferdinand was very important, in the fact that he had been re-elected for three terms straight. The first term had started when Alek had been just three. Then, Alek had lost his loving Father to the cold hard world of politics. Franz Ferdinand left behind an aloof, reserved man who rarely showed displays of affection.

Alek had been isolated, tutored to be the best at everything, privately, alone. And everyone who had taught him agreed that he was bright, unnaturally so. Which was why he was now on a four hour flight to London to join the Royal Regent's Park Academy for Gifted Children. The flight itself was nearly torture. Alek had not been allowed to sulk in peace. Instead he was tormented by several air hostesses asking him if he needed anything, calling him cute and pinching his cheeks or asking him about politics, in the case of one older hostess. Alek had attempted to decline all of these, in favour of reading a large 800 page book about mechaniks. It had been written by a man called Klopp, whom his father had recommended highly as a brilliant man. It was also a large coincidence that Klopp taught at RRPAGC.

The book was brilliant, but that fact that it was written in Hungarian made his understanding of the exact terminology and specific engine types patchy at best. He was considered to be nearly fluent in Hungarian but of course, there were obvious technological terms that Alek hadn't been taught by his tutors. He would have to ask Klopp when he reached the Academy.

(X)

Alek's first thought upon arriving at the academy was of how imposing it looked. The heavily ornate wood-carved door with Latin motto, Scientia est potentia; qui novit, regnat, made Alek wonder just how fanatic about learning the people at this place would be. After all, with a motto like 'Knowledge is power, he who knows reigns supreme', it all sounded rather ruthless.

Of course, the lack of people around the area was also strangely worrying. Alek turned to look back at the taxi. The driver was still waiting, as wordless as he had been from the moment Alek had joined the white card, saying 'Hohenburg'. The driver gestured for Alek to move forwards, so lifting his four bags (for which he had been thrown strange looks at the airport for having), Alek walked up the marble steps and knocked on the old wooden door.

Nothing happened. Alek waited for a few moment s and knocked on the door again. There was no response. Alek was seriously doubting whether he was in the right location when the old door swung open to reveal a tall blonde girl with short cropped hair. The first thing that was the most noticeable about her was her bright red and yellow scarf, tied around her neck. She also wore a scruffy green jumper, of which, the sleeves rolled up and faded jeans.

"Ach, I'm sorry I'm late," said the girl, with a strong Scottish brogue as she shut the door behind Alek. "The Welcoming Committee take too bliddy long to make a decision. So I came over here without their permission."

She then truly looked at him and she took a double-take. "Blimey, you've got a lot of luggage!" she said and Alek flushed.

"Ach, I'm being rude, aren't I? Me mam would have a fit if she knew how strange I was being. Then again, she has a fit, no matter what I do. Deryn Sharp. What's your name?" she said, extending a hand towards Alek.

Alek placed his suitcases down and kissed her hand as was the manners he had been taught. "Aleksander Hohenburg. Or Alek. A pleasure to meet your acquaintance."

Her eyebrows rose. "Blisters, you act like a toff. All you needed to do was shake my hand. But you've got a bit of an accent there mate. You certainly aren't from England. Where are you from?" she said, taking some of his luggage as they headed towards the corridor in the corner of the opulent room.

"Austria." said Alek shortly. "It's in Central Europe."

The girl rolled her eyes at him. 'I know where Austria is! I'm not an idiot. I do know my basic geography. My brother wouldn't let me live it down if I didn't." She then looked at him straight on. "But barking spiders, that's quite a way to come. Must've cost a pretty penny for your parents."

Alek looked away. "Money isn't an issue."

Deryn nodded. "I didn't think it would be. From the way you acted….Anyway, that's just a dead end. Which year are you going into, Alek?"

Alek paused. "Year Nine, I do believe."

Deryn looked surprised. "Well ain't that a coincidence!" she exclaimed, 'I'm in third form too. Year Nine is what they call them in public schools, but we're an academy and a boarding school to put, so things are a little strange here."

"Oh?" asked Alek, "How so?"

Deryn opened her mouth to respond but was interrupted by a "Sharp!" that came from a linking room from the corridor they were currently walking along.

She rolled her eyes but beckoned Alek to follow her into the room. "What is it, Roberts?" she asked a tall, bulky looking boy with black hair.

"What's the deal with walking out on us?" asked Roberts.

Deryn rolled her eyes. "I went to get the new kid, since you numbskulls couldn't make a decision quick enough." She said, gesturing towards Alek.

A blonde boy rolled his eyes in the corner. "That's against protocol, _Miss Sharp_."

"I'll tell you what's against protocol, leaving the poor kid out there wondering whether he's in the right place!" said Deryn hotly.

The Roberts boy nodded. "Mr. Fitzroy, she has a point. Now then," he said, referencing to a clipboard in front of him. "Mr. Hohenburg?" he asked, obviously about the pronounciation.

Alek nodded. "Right then, Mr Hohenburg, do you know where your dorm is?" Roberts asked. Alek shook his head. "Okay then, I'll need a volunteer to take him to C-Floor in dorms."

Deryn piped up. 'I'll take him, Roberts. I know where his exact dorm is, he's rooming with Newkirk. Newkirk's been excited all hols about it."

The blonde boy, who Roberts had called Fitzroy smirked. "Right, and you know where Newkirk's room is, so… _intimately._"

Deryn's face sharpened into a cold glare and he saw her hands clench into tight fists. Alek had no doubt that she had a very hard punch so quickly intervened. "Well then, we'll be off then. My luggage is quite heavy. I do want to drop it off somewhere. Dorm's a good place as any." He gabbled, towing her away from the room.

Deryn looked furious. "What did you do that for! He deserved to have a punch in the head!" she hissed at him.

Alek nodded. 'I'm sure he did, but you'd be the one in trouble, wouldn't you? Assault of another student wouldn't be too good, would it?"

Deryn nodded reluctantly and cooled down. "Fitzroy's an absolute bumrag. Just because his father is one of the rich toffs who benefact the school, he thinks he has the right to do whatever he wants. And the prefects let him, as well. It's absolute clart, but teachers don't catch wind of it, either. I was miserable all of First Form because of him and his mates."

Alek felt sorry for her, she seemed genuinely sorrowful, and she had been so very cheerful the whole way through their meeting. Neither had she minded about his strange tendencies. "Well," said Alek, "It shouldn't be allowed. Someone should tell a teacher."

Deryn grinned. "Nope. Not allowed. Rule One: Matters between students, stay between students. You can get prefects and the seniors involved if need be, but you smooth over and play nice around teachers. It's one of the peculiarities we apparently share with Eton. But they're a bunch of strange toffs who can go roll in clart for all this school takes notice of them."

Alek wasn't sure where Eton was, but he was aware that they were one of the best schools in the world for secondary students.

"What other rules are there?" asked Alek, as they came out of the corridors onto a plant lined pathway.

"Well…."

(X)

The rules discussion took Alek all the way to his dormitory. He was blithely told by Deryn that all the students roomed in one large building. There were six floors and he was on the third floor. He was also told that the ground floor was for congregation, not the dorms, a rule that was largely ignored, but one to keep in mind when talking to teachers. The ground floor consisted of the tuck shop, the library and seating areas for groups of friends who just wanted to chat.

Alek was about to ascend the many flights of stairs when Deryn dragged him to another room. "Take the lift, you daftie!" she said, pressing the button that motioned upwards, "You were right when you said these suitcases were heavy, because I can't be asked to lug them up the stairs and I'm supposed to be an athlete as well!"

There was a ping and Alek and Deryn entered the mirrored lift. A lizard scampered out of the lift and Alek stared in horror as it continued along the ceiling of the ground floor. Deryn on the other hand, gazed at it with envy. "Ah, what a lucky soul! To have a message lizard and be allowed to use it in school, lucky indeed."

Alek merely gazed at the spot it had been in the lift as it started its transit upwards. "What was that?" he asked, feeling horrified.

"A message lizard." said Deryn, looking at him oddly

Alek still felt horrified. "But what does it do?" he asked and mentally added, '_Why do you use it?'_

Deryn laughed in relief. "Ach, I forget that you're from a Clanker country. You tell them messages and they record it perfectly and play it back to the person you want to hear it. Good for lazy people or for long distance messages."

Alek chuckled, even if it was a godless fabrication; that had been funny. Deryn, he had noticed in his short time of meeting her, had an easy wit and humour about her that Alek envied.

They arrived at door 44C and Deryn pushed it open. "The dorms are strange here," said Deryn, as she wrestled with the bags into the small alcove that led to two doors. "You share something similar to a mini apartment. These two doors lead to your bedrooms and there'll be another door at the end that will lead to a small study room with two or three chairs and a table. It's a bit odd, but it works." She then regarded the two doors with a beady eye. "Now, is Newkirk the left room or the right room?" she said, under her breath.

She looked indecisive, so Alek knocked on the right door. There was no response, so Alek pushed open the door. To his relief, the room was empty. He had picked the right door. The two moved his suitcases in next to the bed and Deryn slumped to the ground. "Barking spiders Alek, those bags are gigantic and heavy! What did you put in them, bricks?"

"Books, actually," said Alek stiffly. He'd never had any companions as a child and books had been an outlet for his imagination and creativity.

"Ooh, you're a proper reader then, if your suitcase is that heavy! What's your specialty?" asked Deryn, straightening, dramatically.

"Mechaniks, Languages and Science," said Alek coolly.

"That's brilliant!" said Deryn with a grin, "Mine's are Science, Art and Sport. Means I don't really get the time to read too many books. You'll get along with Pauline though. Which Science do you specialize in?"

"I specialize in Physics. Quantum mechanics is fascinating and so are the energy conversions. It's a lot like Maths. Very logical. And who's Pauline?" said Alek, inspecting the bed as he talked.

"Ahh, that's a shame. I much prefer natural sciences. Beasties and fabrications are ten times better than cold dead machines." said Deryn hotly

"Are we really going to get into that particular argument on the newbie's first day?" asked a cockney voice.

Alek swung around to look at a sturdy looking boy with mousy brown hair and a lot of pimples all over his face. He leant casually against the wall, wearing a thick woolen jumper and plain trousers.

"You're right, Newkirk. Which is a surprise," said Deryn dryly and Newkirk stuck his tongue out at her. Alek suppressed a smile, the two seemed to have a rapport already.

"Me name's Newkirk," said the boy, sticking out a hand. 'What about you then?"

Alek reached the boy's hand and shook it firmly. "Alek Hohenburg. I assume that you're my roommate?"

"Yeah, that's right mate." He said with a grin, "I'll have to warn you though, I snore a fair bit, which is why I haven't had a roommate since First Form."

Deryn snorted. "A fair bit, indeed. Your snores sound like an earthquake's come and hit Britain, which wouldn't happen anyway, because—"

"Because of plate tectonics. Yes, we know Deryn. You've only explained it a hundred times." said Newkirk with the roll of his eyes. "She's a right chatterer. Doesn't shut up. It's torture sitting next to her in class. So don't choose to sit next to her. She could talk the hind leg off a dog."

"You mean the hind leg off of Tazza." laughed Deryn, grinning shamelessly. Newkirk shuddered.

"What's Tazza?" asked Alek, feeling out of the loop.

"It's Dr. Barlow's godless animal that she parades around with her all the time." said Newkirk, looking vaguely nauseated. Alek felt his mouth split into a grin.

"You're a clanker?" he asked, wondering if he had an ally in his roommate.

"Not quite," answered Deryn leaning back against Alek's bed. "He and his mum are Monkey Luddites. Overly religious. Hate anything fabricated. Which is why it's stupid that you are afraid of Tazza. How many times has Dr. Barlow said that Tazza is perfectly natural? Blisters, it's only a Tasmanian Tiger."

Newkirk shuddered again. "It still gives me the creeps, wandering around during lessons….But speaking of Dr. Barlow, I have a tutoring session with her. It should have been with Mr. Matthews, but he's ill and won't be arriving till next week anyway. Sixth and Seventh Form don't have to come back for another week. Lucky blighters."

The stocky boy waved a brief goodbye before exiting the room. Deryn grinned at Alek and Alek had to smile back. "What do you think?" she asked.

"About what?" replied Alek. There was so much to be thought about, addressing just one would be tricky.

"Everything." said Deryn vaguely, gesturing wildly with her hands.

"It's okay, I guess. You know, I was dreading coming here. My parents forced me to." Said Alek conversationally, looking up at the elaborately carved four poster bed with great interest.

"Why?" asked Deryn, sounding genuinely curious.

"I couldn't talk to people." mumbled Alek quietly. Deryn still heard and looked mildly confused.

"But you're talking to me now!" she exclaimed. "And you said that one of your specialties was with languages."

"Not like that!" he said loudly, before deflating. "You saw how I greeted you. It was old and outdated. And I gabble. And I'm not funny."

Deryn snorted. Alek glared at her and she put her hands up in a passive symbol. "First world problems. Look Alek, I really don't give much of a damn about your antiquated ways. In fact, they are rather funny and in themselves, rather dashing. You're nice and you seem level-headed, which is more than I can barking claim. So don't put yourself down before I barely know you."

Alek flushed. 'Thanks Deryn."

"Ach, it ain't a problem. Now, I am not looking forward to returning to the Committee, so how would you like a tour of the school, newbie?"

Alek blinked. If Newkirk was right in one thing, it was that Deryn was a chatterer. But that was okay, seeing as Alek could barely talk. "Why not?" he asked. "After you, then."

(X)

"And this is the Science block," said Deryn, as they walked out of the Dormitorial block to the red brick building straight ahead. "We have four lessons a week. Three of them will be with Dr. Barlow, who will teach us Chemistry and Biology. We're usually in the first lab along the corridor," explained Deryn as she pushed open a bright red door to reveal the room.

It was a large spacious lab, with five large wooden desks stretching across the middle of the room. Along the sides were smaller lab tables with some experiments already set up. There were large science posters spread up all over the white walls and the front of the room had both a whiteboard and a Projector SMARTboard.

A woman with a large bowler hat on her head sat at a table with Newkirk and seemed to be explaining photosynthesis. Alek refrained from rolling his eyes, because he would have to put up with his roommate for a long time, but he'd known about photosynthesis when he was 10. The woman wore a tailored blouse, long patterned tie and fitted waistcoat, paired with a long purple skirt that fell to the floor.

"That's Dr. Barlow then?" he asked Deryn.

"Aye, and Tazza too." Said Deryn, pointing towards the sandy coloured dog with stripes. "It's very…enthusiastic. We were doing pH chemical reactions last year and we were waiting for the chemical reaction with potassium to happen when Tazza pulled down all of the curtains. We thought the reaction had already gone and we'd missed it before we realized what had happened. When all of our attention was over there, the potassium solution went off. Worst lesson ever." recounted Deryn, much to Alek's amusement.

Alek scanned the room again and nodded, the room looked like a great environment to learn in. "So who teaches the fourth lesson?" asked Alek as he closed the door.

Deryn sighed and rolled her eyes. "Dr. Tesla. He's into Physics but I tell you, he's ain't half barmy. He mostly teaches the older years, so it's the first year we've had him as a continuous teacher. Before we've only ever had him as a sub, and even then he was uber creepy."

Alek nodded, this didn't look to good for his Physics lessons. She gestured to a green door and Alek pushed it open. The class was the same size as the previous one but was filled to the brim with experiments and large metal equipment so the tables in the middle looked horribly squished together. Alek stared, most of the machinery looked just like the things he used to tinker with back at home. His fingers itched to be able to go and open up their insides, but Deryn was getting impatient, so Alek shut the door and vowed to ask Dr. Tesla another time.

"Where to next?" asked Alek as Deryn rounded the stairs.

"Upstairs is Geography and History." said Deryn, as she jumped up the stairs two at a time. Alek quickly chased her up the stairs, nearly tripping over his shiny, pointy black loafers.

Deryn pointed to a black door and rapped lightly on it. When there was no answer, Deryn pushed it open.

It revealed a neat and orderly classroom, which Alek was fairly impressed by. Instead of the benches of the science classrooms, there were five columns of paired tables, each with their own stack of textbooks on the shelves behind them all. The walls were white, but it was barely visible beneath the large timeline of history that stretched across the walls of the classroom. Examples of astounding work were stuck to the timeline using blue-tack and there were inspirational quotes lining the rest of the spare spaces.

Alek felt impressed. "That's an orderly classroom. Is that just because it's the holidays?" he asked.

Deryn shook her head. "Count Volger, our teacher is a History and Politics freak, but he is also completely absorbed by keeping the order of things. He gets uber angry when things don't go according to plan, but he's always five steps ahead, so he has another plan anyway. But he's really good at what he does. I have a lot of respect for him; fear-induced respect, but respect nonetheless. But personally, I can't stand the subject. It's just so boring and useless."

Alek bristled; History was one of his favourite subjects. "I think it's quite fascinating."

Deryn shrugged. "Each to their own. Personally, I prefer Geography, but that's due to a personal bias.", she explained as she shut the door to the History classroom.

"Oh?" asked Alek as she moved to the classroom with the shiny red door on the other end of the corridor.

"Aye," said Deryn, with a big grin on her face, "Oi Jaspert, are you in there?" she hollered through the door.

Alek's eyebrows rose. Until now, she'd treated all of the teachers with a little bit of formality even if her own opinions were a little scathing. Perhaps this teacher didn't appreciate respect and formality?

"Come on in Deryn. God knows I can't stop you…" came a mischievous voice from inside the classroom.

Deryn pushed open the door and beckoned Alek to follow her. The moment he stepped into the classroom, he understood just why she was so informal. The man who was papering the walls of his classroom with posters looked very similar to Deryn. He had the same blonde hair and bright blue eyes. He was also really tall and had a mirthful grin on his face as he hopped off the front desk.

"Afternoon Deryn. Who's this then?" asked the relative of Deryn.

"This is Alek Hohenburg. He's new into Third Form. He'll be in my class. Alek, this is my brother, Jaspert Sharp. He teaches Geography."

Alek extended out a hand and Jaspert gripped it tightly and shook it. "Nice to meet you." He said. Jaspert's Scottish brogue was a little more subdued compared to Deryn's but it was still noticeable.

"Are you any good at Geography then?" asked Jaspert, as he hopped back onto the desk and repapered the half-stuck on poster about plate tectonics.

"Decent enough," replied Alek, "I know about natural geography and where all the countries are and their capitals."

Jaspert laughed. "Well then, you are better than the majority of children at public schools. Fact goes though Alek, this place is for brilliance. Do you know much about population and economies?"

Alek had to shake his head there. "No sir. There wasn't really much need for me to know much more than the basics of economy with my tutors. I was more interested politics and history."

Jaspert turned around and smiled. 'That's good. Means there isn't another precocious student in my class this year. God knows I have too many of them. Deryn, tell that Pauline girl to stop talking back in classes. It does get annoying. And you too!" he said, as Deryn's mischievous grin returned.

Alek smiled, it seemed that Deryn had a cheeky rapport with everyone.

"Okay, Jas. I'll try. Well now, must skedaddle. I've got to show Alek the whole school before dinner."

Jaspert's eyebrows raised. "Right then. I'll see you tomorrow, then. Don't forget to get your schedules from Dr. Erasmus. He has enough technology fixing to do without having to chase the Third Form around."

Deryn waved and Alek nodded as they left him to re-papering. "He likes you." said Deryn, with a grin, "I think he's just glad he can teach someone. He can't teach me, because I know more about Geography than he does. Our father taught us loads, and I always picked up on it a lot easier than Jaspert did. But, I suppose I'm grateful to him. I wouldn't be able to attend this school otherwise. It's so expensive, but I get in free because Jaspert teaches here."

Alek nodded. This made sense. He wondered if their family were particularly poor. He wouldn't know what it was like. Maybe Deryn and her friends were the key to being able to talk to people properly again.

"Where do you want to go next, Alek?" asked Deryn as they sped down the stairs out of the red brick building.

"Maths?" asked Alek, with a shrug.

Deryn grinned. "I had a feeling you'd say that. Do you do any of the arts either?"

"Not really. If what you mean by the arts is drawing, then not really, no."

Deryn shook her head as they strode towards a large gravel studded building. "No, Art and Design is part of the arts, but there are lots of others. Music, Theatre, Textiles, Crafting, Mechaniks and so many more."

Alek considered. "The only one that really sounds appealing is Mechaniks. Back home, that was one of my favourite pastimes."

"Hobbies," said Deryn as she opened the door for Alek. "It's called hobbies here. Don't want to act too toff-like."

Alek hesitated. "Shouldn't I be opening the door for you?" he said.

Deryn rolled her eyes. "Only if you want to be bound by gender-dictated circumscription. Now hurry up, this place is massive and we've only half an hour until dinner."

(X)

"And here's the Maths classroom—Good afternoon, Professor Hirst!" said Deryn, backing up a little against the purple door.

"Afternoon, Miss Sharp. Any reason you decided to barge into my classroom?" asked a man with brown hair and beard.

"Sorry sir, I was just showing Alek around the school. He's new." Said Deryn, looking a tad too apologetic for it to be true.

The man nodded. "Next time, Miss Sharp, please knock." He said curtly, before turning to Alek, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Hohenburg? I have very high commendations from your tutors in your maths abilities. I hope to see you excel in my classes."

Alek nodded wordlessly. "Off with the both of you, then." said the man, returning back to his paperwork.

Deryn shut the door quietly and Alek gave her a weak grin. "Very curt, isn't he?"

Deryn sighed. "He hates me. No one else, just me. I don't know why, I've been trying my hardest and I'm pretty decent at my sums and algebra. 'Don't be pert, Miss Sharp'! What a teacher to have." She mimicked with great success.

Alek smothered a laugh. "What's English like then?" he asked as they walked further down the corridor.

"You'll see," said Deryn, knocking on a bright yellow door before pushing it open.

The room was larger than most of the ones that Alek had seen so far. There were haphazardly arranged tables all around the room and the teacher's desk was on a level with them. There was a small whiteboard but no projector, and the walls were plastered with newspaper articles.

"It's not very organized, is it?" asked Alek hesitantly.

Deryn shook her head. "No, but that isn't too bad. The teacher, Mr. Malone treats us like we're equal, which is always nice. Thing is, he goes too far. See all these newspaper articles?" she said and Alek nodded. It was kind of hard to miss them.

"He used to be a reporter in New York and now he's here because he couldn't find any good stories and was fired. So now, he spends most of his lessons interrogating students about things to see if he can find 'the next big scoop'!" Deryn mimicked an American accent for the last part and this time, Alek couldn't suppress the snort of laughter.

She grinned, but then sobered. "In all seriousness Alek, I wouldn't let slip who your father is. Who knows what he'll write if he gets into that story. You're descended from Habsburgs, aren't you? With a name like Hohenburg…." She trailed off and Alek nodded in assent. He was impressed by her historical knowledge, not many knew that his father was descended from that line.

"Not many know that. How did you—"

"Know? I didn't. Hapsburg is the only Austrian family name I know. You seemed fairly aristocratic so, I guessed. And if I can guess from what I know, Eddie Malone most definitely will. So keep schtum." Said Deryn briskly as she shut the door again.

Alek nodded, absently. "Are there any other compulsory subjects?" he asked.

"Yes, languages. You can choose between quite a few. French, German, Latin, Spanish and Mandarin, amidst some others." said Deryn. "Do you want to see the classrooms?"

Alek shrugged "Why not?"

Deryn grinned and started walking down the corridor. 'It'll be the last stop on our tour though," she said as she glanced at a watch, "Dinner will be in around 10 minutes. So ask me about anything else now, so if it's along the way, we can make a quick stop in."

"How many electives do you have to take?" asked Alek, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Three at the least. We have the 4 compulsories, Science, Maths, English and PE. Then you choose between ICT and Religious Studies; History and Geography; Music, Art or Drama; Textiles, Mechaniks, Cooking and Crafting then of course, one or two languages. You can add more, but you need to see Dr. Erasmus about that."

Alek nodded absorbing this information. "Will you show me where his office is then?"

"Don't worry; we're going there before dinner as well. His office is next to the Canteen. I need to get mine, Newkirk's and Pauline's schedules as well, so we can see about your schedule there too." said Deryn as they walked towards a wooden paneled building.

Alek grinned as they walked into the warm interior. It was covered with words from languages all over the walls for welcome. He recognized at least 8, to his credit. The windows to the classrooms were wide open from the corridor and Alek stared at how comfortable it all looked. There were the obligatory paired desks to the side, but in the rest of the classroom, there were beanbags and large bookcases of dictionaries and other language aids. There were also helpful sheets stuck all over the walls, crowding the whiteboard and SMARTboard.

"It looks very comfortable!" said Alek, looking quite surprised.

Deryn grinned. "Yeah, it's really relaxed here. They want you to be comfortable in the language so they make your surroundings comfortable. It's brilliant. I've learnt so much German in just two years!"

Alek smirked. "Oh yes? Wie heist du?"

Deryn rolled her eyes, "Ich heisse Deryn Sharp. That's barking easy."

"Just testing," said Alek, "Wo in der schule ist der Rechnerraum?" he asked, confident she wouldn't be able to answer. He was correct. Her face grimaced.

"That's easy to understand. You asked me where the Computer room was. I just don't know how to answer. I haven't learnt quite enough German to beat a native german speaker though."

"Did I hear the words Native German Speaker?" asked a voice.

Alek and Deryn whirled around to see a thin man with brown hair. He had a friendly expression on his face and Deryn grinned at him.

"Mr Bauer, this is Alek Hohenburg. He's Austrian."

Mr Bauer looked terribly pleased. "It is brilliant to have another German speaker! Will you be taking German?" he asked Alek.

"I don't think so." said Alek, "I already know it quite well, and my father sent me here to learn."

Mr Bauer nodded. "Well then, we shall have to talk another time! Good day, Miss Sharp, Mr Hohenburg!"

Deryn grinned and led him out of the building. "Mr Bauer's brilliant. He's one of the best ones there. Better than Madame Lassiter. Apparently, Pauline says that she's pure evil."

Alek was reminded of her name. "Who is Pauline?" he asked again.

Deryn grinned. "I won't explain. You can meet her yourself at dinner. I think you'll like her."

Alek shrugged as they walked up to a yellow brick building with little white columns outside the door. "Gods wounds, that's a little overboard!" said Alek, as he noticed the latin motto carved into and around the pillars.

Deryn shrugged as she held the door open for him. "It's just old. And a bit pompous. Ooh, there's Dr. Busk. Hold on a moment," she said before sprinting after the graying and balding thin man with a white coat on. "Dr. Busk! Did you get my mam's medical form over the hols?"

The man turned around. "Indeed I did, Miss Sharp. You are now allowed to leave the school premises. No doubt, you can injure yourself instead now."

Deryn flushed and Alek believed that she would be the kind to get into trouble. "Now, Miss Sharp, tomorrow, I expect to find you in my room as soon as afternoon classes are finished to collect your first aid kit. No doubt you will want it, hmm?"

Deryn nodded before smiling and waving a goodbye. "Dr. Busk can be a little brusque. You'll get used to it."

Alek nodded and paused as she knocked on the door of a sleek mahogany door with the name plate :Dr Erasmus.

"Come in," came slow dulcet tones from inside the office and Deryn beckoned him in. The room was messy, with papers and paperclips and files overflowing from the shelf covered walls. Alek couldn't even see the original colours of the walls. The desk itself could barely be seen over the stacks of bright pink post-it notes and laminated pales of paper.

"Miss …Sharp?" asked the doctor, a young man with a brown beard and warm, green eyes.

"That's right, Dr. Erasmus. I came to collect a few schedules and set a schedule up." Said Deryn quite calmly.

"Whose are you collecting?" he asked as he turned to his computer which Alek hadn't noticed.

"Deryn Sharp, Eugene Newkirk, Pauline White and Lilit Sahmaran." Deryn rattled off, counting them on her fingers.

"Mmhmm," said Dr. Erasmus, rapidly typing and clicking. "And whose schedule needs to be set up?"

"Mine," answered Alek, finding his voice, miraculously. "Aleksander Hohenburg."

"Right-o. What level of Science, Maths and English?" asked the Doctor.

"Highest." answered Deryn, evidently recognizing his confused expression.

"Language?"

"French," answered Alek. He was fairly decent at French, but he needed some practice, and the lesson would be able to provide it.

"Humanity?"

"Can I take both?" asked Alek, hesitantly.

Dr. Erasmus looked up from the computer screen. 'Sure you can. But it eliminates Art, Music and Drama from your schedule."

Alek smiled, "That's fine with me, Dr. Erasmus. I wasn't planning on taking them anyway."

Dr. Erasmus shrugged. "You have two more spaces left."

Alek paused. What had Deryn said there were? "Mechaniks," said Alek, absentmindedly. "And was it, Crafting?"

Dr. Erasmus nodded. "You can't take both, I'm afraid."

"Mechaniks then," said Alek, "And Spanish." Alek didn't know a squick of Spanish, but he knew Latin, Italian and French, which had been enough for him so far. Learning the actual language would be beneficial.

Dr Erasmus tapped a way at the keys, before Alek heard the sound of a printer, frantically swiping away. Dr. Erasmus then rifled through a few piles of laminated sheets and handed over four of them to Deryn.

"Here you go, Miss Sharp. Your schedules. And yours is just printing, Mr. Hohenburg."

Alek and Deryn lapsed into a quiet silence, the doctor seemed to have no desire to interrupt. Once it finished printing, Dr Erasmus lined it with two sheets of plastic and quickly whipped it through the laminating machine, before handing the slightly warm plastic to him.

"Goodbye," he said absentmindedly, before turning back to his computer.

They both backed out of the room, before Deryn broke into a grin. "Well that was a squick awkward, huh?"

Alek nodded and headed towards the large door that emitted noise. "So how do meals work here then Deryn….?"

(X)

Alek kept a tight grip on his plastic basket as Deryn gripped his wrist and navigated him through the crowds of chatting students. He was quite unused to seeing so many people gathered in one place in quite an uncivilized manner.

Deryn steered him to a small table in the corner with comfortable chairs. A girl with long, straight brown hair and olive like skin was sitting and eating what looked like a tub of noodles. She brightened when she saw Deryn, pulling herself and Alek chairs from the other deserted table.

"Hey Deryn! You're the first person I've wanted to see all day! Where have you been? I was waiting for ages in the library!"

Deryn laughed. "I forgot about that meeting. I was taking Alek around the school. He's in Third Form and he's new here."

Pauline smiled, and Alek saw a glimpse of green braces. "It's nice to meet you!" she said, extending a hand.

Alek paused a little. He wasn't sure which greeting would be more appropriate.

"Just shake her hand, you ninny." said Deryn rolling her eyes, "You don't need to kiss it. It's okay if you don't, you toff."

Alek sighed and shook her head. Pauline looked she was stifling a giggle. "Don't be mean, Deryn. He's just being chivalrous. In South Africa, it's considered a social fault of you don't show manners like that to a girl."

"You would know. You're so fidgety, you can't stay in one country for a year." said Deryn, rolling her eyes. This settled it in Alek's eyes. Deryn had a rapport with everybody. She apparently liked arguing.

"Well, you had an excuse for not showing Deryn, but Newkirk and Lilit don't." said Pauline, crossing her arms, looking annoyed. "I was really boring waiting there, like a bleeding _serin_."

"You speak French well then?" asked Alek, his mouth twitching. He'd heard the insult and plenty more from the Russian ambassador who had gotten extremely drunk at a EU conference.

"Yeah, I lived in France for around two years." She said, flashing her teeth and braces at his again.

Alek nodded. Just then a thump came from behind them and Newkirk was sprawled across the floor. Deryn reached down to him and helped him up.

"Blisters, that was a heck of a fall, you ninny! What happened?"

Newkirk gathered the remains of his taco that were sprawled all over the floor. "Fitzroy. Who else?"

Deryn seethed. "I don't know why he's such a twat. Would it kill him to leave us alone?" she said.

"He just wants a rise out of you Deryn. Not that it's very difficult to get one. If you don't react, he'll leave you alone." Said Pauline sensibly.

Deryn sighed. "Why are you always sensible?"

Pauline grinned. "It's because I've been around the world and you haven't. You haven't mastered the concept of self-restraint quite yet. Anyway, where were you Newkirk?"

Newkirk scowled. "Tutoring from Dr Barlow. It was supposed to be with Matthews, but sixth form and seventh form aren't back yet."

Pauline sighed. "You can't still be hopeless at science. Not with me and Deryn always on your back."

Newkirk sighed. "It just doesn't make sense! What is the difference between photosynthesis and respiration and plants? And why should I care?"

Deryn looked annoyed and launched into a definition of the two, talking about opposites and carbon dioxide frequently. Alek on the other hand, started on his meal of roast beef and yorkshire pudding, whatever the latter was.

"So, where in the world are you from?" asked Pauline as she polished off her noodles.

"Austria," said Alek. "Where did you originally live? Because you don't really look English, even if you sound it."

Pauline laughed and twisted her long brown hair around her fingers. "Well, originally, my dad was from Japan. And my mum was Greek. I got her complexion, as you can see. My dad was a little strange coming from Japan. If you've read any of their stories or mythology, the heroes are always ridiculously young when they achieve greatness. My dad had cancer, but he'd made a fortune in life as a business investor. He told me he'd left all of his money to me, but if I was to gain a penny of it, I had to do something great. My mum's writing job is okay, it gets us enough money, but it's not really quite enough. So I've been traveling around the world doing things that might count as great. But none of them impress the guys in charge of my inheritance. I don't really know what they are looking for."

Alek stared, she sounded quite mad. "What kind of things?" he asked as Newkirk proceeded to explain why plants were stupid and made no sense.

"Well, I've piloted my own hot-air balloon all over Africa, dropping supplies to starving people in usually inaccessible locations. I've been helping earthquake victims in Haiti. I've managed to wheedle my way onto a peace team in Iraq to try and negotiate terms. Didn't work, by the way."

Alek's eyebrows rose. "Just how old are you?"

"15." She said, unapologetically. "To my credit, my dad died when I was 5. I had a lot of time to get my intentions known. I was in all the newspapers in 2006; 8 year old girl on the quest for heroism, was one of the more memorable titles."

"And you enjoyed it?" asked Alek, skeptically.

"Sure," said Pauline, "Who wouldn't? It can be real fun, especially when the interviewers are really nice about it. The advantage of being a child. No one really dares to be too mean about it. I kind of got tired of it when they started slandering my Mum for all of it though. Blamed her for letting me be reckless; she got so much hate-mail. It was awful."

Alek nodded. His father had often complained about the bad press he got from the media. No one in Austria really believed the papers though; they wouldn't have voted him in quite so frequently if they had. Franz Ferdinand was far too good at his job and not nearly stupid enough to get caught if he really was being underhanded. Alek doubted that his father would be able to be underhanded however, his father was always noble.

Suddenly, a tall, beautiful girl with dark, asian skin and long black hair in several plaits arrived at their table. Pauline brightened.

"Lilit, you're here! I was getting worried! How was the visit to Turkey?"

The girl gave a sigh of contempt. "It was okay, but the connecting flight from Germany to Britain was delayed, I had to wait 6 hours there before the morons got themselves into gear about actually getting me onto a plane here. I phoned my grandmother and she was furious about the whole affair."

Pauline rolled her eyes. "Airport people. Honestly, this is why I prefer air balloons or ships."

"Not all of us have media fees and influences everywhere, y'know." said Deryn. Apparently her heated discussion with Newkirk was over. "Some of us have to deal with the common people. Aye, I know. Shock horror, to the lot of you toffs."

Alek laughed and the tension at the table seemed to dissolve. "So, who are you?" asked the tall girl, a smile briefly touching the corner of her lips.

"Alek Hohenburg." He said, extending a hand. She gave him a thin smile, ignoring his out-stretched hand. "You're descended from royalty," she said, disapprovingly.

Deryn rolled her eyes. "He can hardly help his family, Lilit," she exclaimed. Turning to Alek she said, "Ignore her, she's just sour. The Royalists in Turkey were very vehement about the hierarchy system. Her mother died because of them. Now she had this thing against royalty, even though the Turkish revolution succeeded."

Alek had heard about the revolution and how bloody it had been. His father had been one of the diplomats to urge for peace. But Lilit merely sniffed. "I'm not sour; royalists are a danger to society."

Newkirk, this time grinned mischievously. "I'll be sure to inform you when Alek tries to murder me when I'm sleeping."

The whole table burst into peals of laughter, and while the tension was by no means gone, the dinner conversation was much smoother afterwards.


	8. Generations Part 2

**DALEK WEEK : Generations Part 3**

(X)

His first lesson on Monday was Science with Dr. Barlow. He'd been informed by a rueful Newkirk, that he hadn't qualified for Higher Science, so it would just be Alek, Pauline and Deryn. Lilit was in actually in Fourth Form and wouldn't be joining them, much to Alek's relief. The girl might not have been quite so insulting the rest of that evening, but she hadn't endeared herself to Alek, with her stony silence.

Deryn, with Alek in tow, had taken them to Science classroom fifteen minutes early, to get the best seats on the second row. Pauline had trailed along after another five minutes, hair curled neatly into three bunches and a few plaits. It looked very complicated and Alek frowned. "Why do you need that in your hair?" he asked.

Pauline grinned. "Miss Rogers asked me to perform a little in her First Form drama lesson in third period. She thinks I'm brilliant at acting."

Deryn snorted. "Like her opinion means much."

Pauline sighed. "Just because you aren't fond of her doesn't mean you have to insult her. Anyway, I think the way she calls you bell-captain is cute."

"You would." retorted Deryn before falling silent as Dr. Barlow entered the room with Tazza in tow.

"Miss Sharp, if you could be so kind as to wheel the book trolley from out from the back of the classroom," the doctor instructed quickly, as she unwrapped her long scarf and placed down her several bags on top of the teacher's desk.

Deryn quickly hurried to the task and Dr. Barlow plugged her laptop into the projector which didn't turn on. "Bother," she said. "Miss White, turn on the projector for me, if you could."

Pauline grinned and leapt onto the science bench in one fluent jump and stood on her tip-toes to reach the button. She pressed it with a flourish and disembarked as the projector rumbled to life.

"Mr Newkirk, could you please feed the glowworm some of the pellets on my desk?" she asked absentmindedly as she flicked through a textbook.

Alek paused. "Ma'am," he said, "My name isn't Newkirk. You've got me confused with my room-mate. I'm Aleksander Hohenburg."

The Doctor looked up, with a single eyebrow raised. "So you are." She said. "It doesn't change my instructions however. If you could please feed the glow-worm, before it gets testy, Mr Hohenburg?"

Alek hastened to obey, understandably, slightly intimidated by her demeanour. The glow-worm quickly removed the pellets from his hand and Alek shuddered as he felt its antennae brush against his skin.

"No need to be afraid of them, Mr. Hohenburg," said the Doctor, without looking up from her laptop, "They won't harm you. Also they are perfectly natural. As I presume were your misgivings against them?"

Alek nodded, she was a little like a mind-reader and it was rather un-nerving. "From your name and your accent, you were very obviously from a Western European province. Not Germany itself as your accent wasn't quite the typical German inhabitant's style, but a nearby place. Prussia or Austria maybe?"

"Austria," said Alek smoothly recovering as he returned to his seat. Deryn had grabbed them all textbooks and Alek started flicking through it as the first of the students started to trickle in. It was mostly biology with mentions to chemistry, with a lot of focus on genes and chromosomes and life threads. Alek sighed; this was after all what his father had wanted him to do here; learn, but it seemed a little too much like turning traitor against his Clanker principles for him to be quite so fascinated by it all.

"It's interesting, isn't it?" whispered Deryn as a brown haired girl squeezed her way past them to the seat next to Pauline.

"What is?" asked Alek, jolting guiltily.

"You don't have to lie to me, you know. It's not a crime to enjoy science. You were clearly fascinated by the book, because you missed Pauline calling your name three times." said Deryn, rolling her eyes. Pauline was now in avid conversation with the brown haired girl, though Deryn looked vaguely disgusted.

Alek flushed. "It's just, I know it's what my father wanted me to learn, but, it feels like I'm betraying him."

Deryn snorted, as Dr. Barlow started the register. "Don't be ridiculous!" she whispered.

"Mr Hohenburg?" asked Dr. Barlwo.

"Present, Ma'am." He called, like the many classmates before him and she gave him a curt nod before moving on.

She quickly started the lesson with a lot of quickfire questions about cell structure, which Deryn and Pauline quickly answered and when they weren't quick enough, Alek usually got a hand in. Many of the students were hurriedly drawing diagrams or attempting to get their hand up in time. Alek himself found it difficult to keep up with the pace of the lesson, as Dr. Barlow moved on very quickly from all the topics, only explaining it in the briefest detail, unless someone was quick enough to get a hand in and ask for a specific bit to be elaborated.

He would have to do some individual reading. Once Dr Barlow had finished the lecture part of the lesson, she told them to get on with the questions in the textbook. Alek skimmed through them and saw that they were all fairly easy, compared to the subject matter they had been discussing. After all, asking for the definitions of chromosome, gene and nuclei was hardly difficult in comparison to attempting to match up all 23 pairs of chromosomes in the space of a minute.

In fact, the questions were so easy, Alek had finished all 10 in the space of around 15 minutes. He noticed that most of the class were still re-reading their textbooks and drawing diagrams of chromosomes and rolled his eyes. He then noticed that Deryn was sitting very boredly with one hand thrust up on the air and the other supporting her chin.

"How long have you been done then?" Alek asked as he too put his hand up.

"When you started Question Five," said Deryn, "I beat Phyllis as well." Alek craned to se that she seemed a lot more enthusiastic about her hand being up.

"How long—"

"Question 8. But then, she was always into Physics more." said Deryn straightening as Dr. Barlow seemed to finally come over to them from helping the blonde boy at the back of the classroom.

"Let me guess," she said, her voice dry, "You've all finished." They all nodded. "And the extension questions?" They all nodded again.

Dr Barlow swore under her breath. "I haven't had time to print out any worksheets. It's only the first day. But, I have got a job for you. As, you are all bright young students, I want to set an extra credit science project."

Deryn perked up and Alek leant a little closer. "Grab your bags. Yes, Mr. Fitzroy, I'll be with you in a moment!"

Deryn quickly packed up and Alek scrambled to get his stuff packed. Pauline did it quickly and efficiently and all of them were ready to go. Dr. Barlow took them to the red door behind her desk.

'These are the Science Storage rooms. If I find that you've destroyed of this, there will be consequences, you hear?" asked Dr. Barlow, whirling around suddenly.

"Yes, Dr Barlow," Deryn and Pauline chorused, leaving Alek repeating it slightly out of sync with them.

She nodded curtly and led them to what looked like a crate filled with eggs. "You have all heard of fabrications, I presume?" Alek noticed that she directed her question at him and he nodded.

"These are fabrications that I have been commissioned to create by the NHS, to help doctors with their workload. I need detailed reports of their growth and development, which frankly, I haven't the time to make. If you three can make them for me, I would be most obliged, and you will get a lot more credit on your end of year reports and grades. As it is, I'll need daily observations, sketches of them over a weekly basis and these reports need to be of the utmost English and grammar level, understood?"

All three of them weakly nodded. "Alek," said Dr. Barlow, "I've looked at your report from your previous tutors, and it has been mentioned you have some skill with making machines? As it is, I need an incubator which can keep these eggs at a constant temperature that isn't alive. I have no expertise in these matters and Master Klopp is rather busy with the National Mechanics society demanding work from him on a nearly fortnightly basis, which leaves me to turn to you or having to buy someone on a teacher's salary. I prefer this option, hmm? Now, get to work. I shall come and collect you five minutes before the bell for your next lesson."

Dr. Barlow nodded before leaving. All three exchanged surprised looks. "Well that's a project and a half!" exclaimed Deryn, looking quite surprised.

"It's strange that she would leave us in charge of her fabrications, especially, since they are on a national scale." said Pauline, looking concerned as she dropped to examine the eggs.

"She doesn't have the time. You heard her, she's always busy. Anyway, I think it is a test," said Alek as he also examined the glow-worm heaters, with an air of disdain, "She had a look in her eyes which was rather an amused expression. She doesn't think we can succeed but hopes that we can. I say we should prove her wrong."

Deryn nodded. "There are three tasks in there. The creation of the incubator, which has to go to Alek, seeing as neither Pauline nor I have skills in Mechaniks." Alek nodded quite firmly. This would be a challenge, but one he was willing to undertake. "The sketches of the eggs, which I think I shall attempt. After all, I am an art student." Said Deryn, looking quite smug, but Pauline didn't seem to contest the fact that Deryn could draw.

"That leaves me with the observations. That ought to be easy enough, but you lot should let me know if you see anything I've missed, language or science wise. That's why she gave it to three of us, I think. So we can correct each other." said Pauline as she reached for some spare paper off the shelf. "As it is, we should start work on the project now. She has given us some time."

And with that, all three flopped to the ground to start work on a project that would stun the world.

(X)

"Are you ready yet, your princeliness?" called Deryn from across the tennis courts. She wore her skort with sass and swung her tennis bat around quite arrogantly. Alek sighed and threw the ball up in the air. He had been explained the basics of tennis by a rather bemused Head of Sport, Mr. Rigby, but it really wasn't enough just knowing the theory, as was proved by his serve falling hilariously short of the net.

Deryn threw her head back. "Come on!" she yelled, 'Use some force! You're acting like the worst kind of girl!"

Alek growled, it was easy for her to say, tennis had been part of her everyday life. As it was, as great as his father was at tennis, he was a disaster at it and hadn't been interested in improving. He served again and hit the ball viciously. It flew over Deryn's head and landed in the middle of a patch of thorns.

Deryn sighed. "Brilliant shot!" she yelled, her voice oozing sarcasm, "It'll take at least an hour to locate that ball, let alone extract it!"

Alek snapped. "Stop being so uppity! I'd like you to be perfect at fencing when you first try it! I've been awful at tennis since forever. I was banned from my anther's courts because I was deemed 'a danger to the participants and audience!' If you're so amazing, why don't you serve then?"

Deryn rolled her eyes. "Fine!" she shouted back, removing a ball from the side of her skort, revealing a scandalous amount of skin, even for modern times. "Get ready for an ace, you ninny!"

The ball soared and Alek lunged for it in what the teacher had called a volley. He hit it but it went sharply to the left, thwacking Fitzroy in the head, causing him to lose his rally and his temper.

Deryn was in fits of laughter. "Okay," she said, clenching her sides, "For that, I take back everything I said about you being bad at tennis! That was genius!"

Alek felt his mouth split into a grin. If this was what his Sports lessons were going o be like, perhaps he wouldn't mind it so much.

(X)

The moment he stepped into his Mechaniks class, Alek was treated to a frosty glare by Lilit, who was sitting in the front row. Alek was five minutes late to his first lesson, having gotten hopelessly lost in the spiral building of the arts department. Deryn had walked away, saying something vague about to the left. Alek had checked every left hand side classroom, until eh surmised that she was wrong and it was on the right.

"Sorry I'm late, Mr. Klopp!" said Alek, rushing into the class, "I got really lost!"

The man was slightly chubby and grinned jovially. "No fault in that. It is your first lesson! Just don't let it happen again, eh?"

Alek nodded emphatically, scanned the classroom and surmised that the only spare seat was next to Lilit. He threw his bag down and quickly retrieved his pencil-case and planner. Luckily, he hadn't missed too much of the lesson, just introductions and textbooks. Alek quickly retrieved one form the front desk as Mr. Klopp started the register.

"What are you doing here?" he hissed to Lilit as he opened his textbook. "Aren't you in 10th?"

Lilit rolled her eyes. "So few people want to do Mechaniks, they combine 9th and 10th classes so they can fill the room. This is a Darwinist Country."

"Oh." said Alek, feeling stupid. Mr. Klopp called his name and he answered, quite vaguely. It hadn't occurred to him that it would be unpopular.

As Mr. Klopp announced the page in their textbooks, he'd like them to discuss, Lilit bent over to him. "Look, I don't like you." said Lilit quite frankly, "And you haven't done anything wrong yet, but the moment you do, I will be all over you, understand?"

Alek nodded bluntly. "I think it's better for us in this lesson to not interact unless absolutely necessary." She said casually, as she flicked the book's pages to the topic about different types of mechanisms and how they were invented.

Alek sighed and got to reading about the first steam engine, created by James Watt to pump water out of mines and how the mechanism worked. He had assumed that he would enjoy these lessons, but apparently, it wasn't to be so.

(X)

"Why does homework have to be so tiresome?" asked Newkirk as flopped into the chair next to Alek, who was diligently copying out the drawing of the many household crests of the European families for Count Volger's homework.

"Because it's designed to suck your brains out through a straw!" replied Deryn vehemently, from across Alek where she was still attempting to complete the algebraic rearranging set by Mr. Hirst.

"It's tiresome because you don't find the subject interesting," said Alek evenly, as he finished the Hapsburg crest. He glanced at it, it was rather pompous. The double-headed eagle with mechanical wings, seemed to glaring at him from the page. He wasn't exactly acting the picture of nobility, which was probably for the best because either Deryn or Lilit would have killed him in a heartbeat.

Suddenly, Pauline burst into the library, clutching a copy of the Daily Telegraph. "You won't believe what's just happened!" she said as she drew a chair up to their table. She spread the newspaper wide, over Alek and Deryns' work to display the first double paged spread declaring that his father called for the end to China's communism days.

Alek winced. "I think my father has finally snapped," he murmured under his breath.

"That's what I think too." said Pauline looking disgusted. "Doesn't he realize the reaction he's going to get? Stony silence and blackmail from China's leader. It's been tried before. Until the communism there collapses, we're stuck with it."

Alek sighed. "He must have ignored all of his advisors on this one. He's been contemplating this idea for ages but everyone's told him not to. Hell, I've told him not to!"

Deryn snorted. "For the less politically aware, like this sod here," she said poking Newkirk who looked like he was going to go to sleep there and then, "What the barking hell is wrong with that? Everyone knows that the parliament there is ridiculously corrupt and slowly draining the country! What's wrong with him calling it out?"

Pauline looked patient. "It is politics and the art of bullshitting. Everyone knows what happens behind closed doors in China, but every country has equal secrets behind their doors. No one wants their secrets revealed and China knows a lot of them. Alek's father must be confident there's no corruption in the Austrian government or something else the Chinese can call them out on."

Alek took over here. "But it puts the rest of the world in an awkward position. Leave Austria alone to fend for itself and alienate Austria or back up Austria and alienate China. They can't just ignore it, not when the press are having a field day over it. So it leaves the question of, who is going to move next? Newkirk, you should have paid some attention at least, Count Volger's bound to point it out in the next lesson. Knowing him, he'll probably have the whole class analyzing the actions of Austria and then placing us in the roles of the other countries and their actions."

Newkirk groaned and sunk underneath the table. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I want Maths back again," he said and Alek smiled. Newkirk seemed to excel in Maths and statistics, even if he claimed to not enjoy it.

Pauline scowled though. "It doesn't matter about class in the slightest, but the worldwide repercussions are severe. There could be war. China's obviously going to deny everything then target your father specifically, especially since the next page of the newspaper was filled with most of Austria's main party members denying their involvement in this decision. And your father has allies with the EU countries, as well as Norway, and a lot of the Commonwealth, like India and Australia. He'd have powerful enemies though. China, Pakistan, Russia, Syria North Korea and so many more. It could be World War Three if China take offence to it."

"Which they are certain to!" said Alek groaning, putting his hands in his head. He didn't know what his mother was thinking, letting his father to screw up so much. Sophie knew politics just as well as Franz did.

"Sorry to add to the bad news fest," said Deryn grimly, "But there isn't a chance that Eddie Malone will miss this article. If it's all over the internet, the papers had to have released it all over the place. He's going to get a clipping of this paper, and he will definitely recognize your surname. He will then pester you and generally make your life hell, until you give him an interview."

Alek slumped into the table, wishing the ground would swallow him. "Can I join you under the table, Newkirk?" he asked.

"No. The table is mine!" cackled Newkirk, in far too loud a voice, causing their eviction by one Mrs Evans, head librarian.

(X)

"So, Alek Hohenburg? No relation to Franz Ferdinand Hohenburg, prime minister of Austria, whose family has been declared 'enemies of China'?" asked the overly curious English teacher. He looked completely filthy. If Deryn hadn't pointed him out as a teacher, Alek would have assumed that he was a vagrant with his filthy and generally untidy attires. He also sported an awful fabrication, a giant frog that seemed to stare into your soul whenever you weren't paying attention in class.

"None whatsoever, Mr. Malone." said Alek uncomfortably as the frog seemed to focus it's eyes onto his head. "It's a common surname in Austria."

Eddie frowned. He didn't seem too convinced. "Call me Eddie! Mr. Malone makes me sound old!"

"Which he is," muttered Deryn under her breath and it took all of Alek's self constraint not to snort in agreement.

Eddie Malone grinned. "Okay class, today we'll be studying formal letter formation! I don't usually like doing formal writing with you, but it's there in your curriculum. In the brown envelope in front of you are the components of a formal letter. I'd like you, in pairs, to put them in the right places on your A4 paper. The first pair to get it correct win a lollipop. Go!"

Deryn tipped out all of the paper from the envelope onto the table. She immediately started putting the addresses at the top and Alek grabbed the paper that said main body and stuck it in the middle of the page. He put 'ending salutation' near the bottom, along with 'signature' and 'your name'. Deryn had meanwhile sorted out the dates and addresses, so Alek threw his hand in the air. However, Newkirk and Pauline had already got there. Deryn glared at them and Newkirk stuck out his tongue.

"Newkirk, Pauline, I'm afraid there's a mistake in yours!" said Eddie to Pauline's horror.

Edie then came over to them and scanned through their placement. ''Yep, these two have got the correct answers! It's your address in the top right corner, with the date below. Then it's the addressee's address on the top left corner. The beginning salutation should be on the left, below their address. Then it's the main body, ending salutation, signature and your name. Well done, Deryn and Alek! They win…."

Eddie rummaged in his pockets, "Two lollipops!" He held out a purple lollipop to Alek and Alek gingerly took it and threw it in his bag, vowing to give it to someone else or throw it away at the next opportunity.

"Right then, everybody!" exclaimed Eddie, "Now, we're going to write letters home. Remember the structure and formal language please! I will be reading out the best one to the class, so nothing to personal! Then we'll send them off with the Royal Mail! Savvy? Okay, get on with it. You have half an hour."

Alek paled. He could hardly put his actual address on the letter and he didn't know any of the road names of the places in Austria. And anyways, how would they react, getting a letter form a stranger, even if he did know a road name and number there?

"Deryn…"

"I know," she hissed as she wrote her address down, "This is awful. And I can't just give you a random English address, because you told him you were from Austria, numpty. And what are you going to put in there anyway?"

"Generic things, like salutations and exclamations of being homesick and details about lessons and friends. Nothing that I'd actually want to say." Said Alek, looking annoyed. "I'm not that much of an idiot."

Deryn smirked, "Well, you never know…"

"What are the two of you doing?" asked Eddie sticking his head down towards them. Deryn fell into a sullen expression.

"Nothing sir." said Alek, inspiration striking, "It's just that my parents and I have had an argument about learning. Stuff about Darwinists being the enemy and things like that. Personally, I don't want to write back to them. Is there someone else I could send a letter to?"

And they had managed to get into an argument before he'd left. Alek just conveniently forgot to mention that it was he that had been convinced that Darwinists were bad. Eddie brightened. "Well, you can write to the Prime Minister! It creates a sense that children actually like politics!"

"Which he does," muttered Deryn and Alek was surprised that Eddie ignored it.

Alek smiled, as Eddie quickly scrawled the Prime Minister's address down onto some scrap paper for Alek. Problem, avoided. For now.

(X)

"You finished it already?" asked Deryn as Alek placed the eggs inside the newly created incubator. "But it's only been a month since she asked us to help her!"

Alek flushed and waved it off as nothing. He conveniently forgot to mention that he'd been working on it at every spare moment he'd had. It had been a challenge that he'd enjoyed and he was sure that his Mother would have been able to appreciate the irony.

He'd been talking with Klopp a lot and Klopp had given Alek free reign of the parts drawer, after Alek admitted he'd read the mechaniks book that Klopp had written. From then, it had been easy to make it.

"I still can't believe it!" said Deryn, as she got back to sketching the eggs. Alek stuffed loft insulator material around the eggs, suppressing a smile. As if she hadn't sketched all of the eggs so many times she could draw them all by memory.

"When's Pauline arriving?" asked Alek and he twirled the lever to enclose the eggs in a layer of double glazed glass to prevent the heat escaping. He adjusted the knob that ensured the opening of the airholes was at half-mast.

"Soon. She still has Mandarin classes." said Deryn, "You can go now, if you want. I'll still be supervising the eggs."

Alek pondered it, before deciding it was more than worthwhile to be late to Newkirk's history tutoring than to leave Deryn here alone. He slumped down next to her.

"I'll wait," he said and was surprised by the smile he got in return.

"Thanks!" she said, in obvious surprise.

"Your charming company was too irresistible to depart from." He teased, expecting a sharp remark in return. Instead, she flushed and looked back down to her drawing and mumbled a hasty thanks once more.

Alek lapsed into silence. He hadn't expected that. They were at an age where romance was acceptable, even encouraged in some parts of the world, but Alek felt awkward. Just a month ago, he didn't know how to talk to people properly. Now, the person he was counting on most to steer him through this strange Darwinist world was acting weird. Alek was no fool, even if he could act like it at times, he was pretty sure that she was considering herself either in love with him or thought that he was 'fanciable', as Pauline called it.

It was just that he wasn't sure if he returned it. She was a pretty girl; there was no denying that, even with her hair cropped like a boy and her tomboy attire, but was considering someone as pretty, love? In that case, he'd be in love with half the school. He could identify beauty when he saw it. He just wasn't sure if he was in love with his best friend.

Her voice broke him out of his thoughts. "Hey Alek," she asked, her face and voice fully back to normal, "Why do you think your father did what he did?"

"What do you mean? Calling out that China was corrupt?" asked Alek, his brain still half in his previous conversation with her.

"No. Sending you here." Said Deryn and Alek frowned.

"I'm sure I told you. I couldn't talk to people." Said Alek.

Deryn snorted. "Don't be ridiculous Alek. You can talk to people, just fine. You're a tad formal at times but your speech isn't impaired by it in anyway. That isn't enough reason to send you to another country."

Alek frowned. "He wanted me educated. What parent wouldn't?"

"Yes, but Alek, I've researched it. There are far better schools than this one, much closer to Austria. Why this one in Britain? It doesn't make sense, unless your father has an ulterior motive."

Alek frowned. "What motive could he have had?" he asked. This conversation was a strange one. His father's explanation of his speech being strange was perfectly reasonable. After all, the fiasco with the Princess of Sweden proved how bad he'd been at talking. But now he thought about it, she'd seemed more mortified for herself than angry at him.

"You said it yourself, before, when it first happened. Your father declared the thingy with China against all his advisors. You said that if you'd been there, you would have stopped him. I think that's exactly what he didn't want. That's why he sent you away."

Alek sighed. "But it doesn't make any sense! What was stopping his advisors from telling him it was a bad idea? From what they said in the newspaper, they'd told him, but he'd gone ahead with it anyway!"

"Newspapers can make up details. Eddie Malone's an example. His writing was sensational, rarely depending on fact, as long as there was a good story. And anyway, you're closer to him. You would have stopped him in any case. You've done it before." said Deryn, looking up from her sketches.

Alek felt put aback. He _had_ done it before. His father had been determined to pledge peace in Turkey, to go help the royalists. Alek had told his father that the man was bad and that the revolution had been a good thing. He'd insisted and refused to let go of his father until he'd pinky promised in front of mother not to stop the revolution.

"I wasn't aware that had gotten into the papers," said Alek, looking shocked.

"It did," said Deryn, a smug look on her face, "It might not have been allowed in the main newspapers, but the government can't keep track of every single newspaper in Britain. They'd waste too many resources. In fact, that news of your helping hand was published in a Scottish paper, near Glencoe, where I live. I remembered your name from there. It said about your relation to the Hapsburgs and that royalty would aid and abet other royalty if it wasn't for children's innocence or some clart like that. I wasn't sure though, it was a while back, wasn't it? So I emailed my ma and she confirmed it for me."

Alek was stunned. He didn't realize that Deryn would do this much research into his background. "Deryn—"

"Don't. Let me finish. You had the power to stop your father and he knows it. That's why he sent you away, so he could make that decision. I don't know his motive behind it, but it must be important." concluded Deryn.

"I- I- I don't know what to say Deryn. I just don't know why he'd be this foolish. Well, I can see him being foolish, but my mother knows just as much about politics as he does. She would have stopped him in any case!" exclaimed Alek.

But Deryn threw him a soft smile, "Unless she was in on the secret too. But mothers aren't stupid. I ought to know that. She wouldn't send you away unless it was something important. My ma didn't want me to come here, because she loved me more than Jaspert. But she eventually gave her consent, because she knew it was important that I grow up to be something amazing. Whatever they're doing, it's something big."

Alek was about to retort when Pauline walked into the room. She stopped, looking confused. "Am I interrupting something here?"

Deryn smiled, vaguely. "No, nothing at all. Alek, you ought to go now, Newkirk'll be wondering where you are."

(X)

Alek paused and waited outside the Physics classroom. They were supposed to have weekly lessons with Dr. Tesla, but he hadn't shown up at all in the first two months, so had taken over his classes, with a smug sense of satisfaction. By the way Dr. Barlow talked about the physics teacher, she didn't like him much either. But today, for the first time, the notice board had declared that Dr. Tesla would be teaching Third Form again.

So here he was.

"Hey Alek!" came a voice. Alek turned around to see Phyllis approaching behind him. She looked very excited. "I can't wait for his lesson! I've been looking forward to Physics all year!"

Alek felt heartened. "So he isn't as bad as everyone says?"

Pauline looked uncomfortable. "Well, he's not awful, but he's a little obsessive about his own genius. He made a lot of advances in modern technology with his mind and he likes to brag about it. And, he has this bad habit of trying to persuade everyone that Physics is amazing, when people like Deryn much prefer biology. But you can't doubt his knowledge! He's clever, if a tad eccentric."

Alek sighed. This really didn't sound like good news. He loved Physics, because it intertwined so well with mechaniks and maths. It was a predominantly Clanker subject, which was why he had been overjoyed when it had been taught as a compulsory subject in a Darwinist country.

"Morning Alek!" came Deryn's voice. She was carrying what looked like a large orangutan made out of what looked like balloons.

"What is that?" asked Pauline's voice, beating him to the question.

"A giant orangutan. It's for Art. We do a whole bunch of strange things." said Deryn. "But it's quite heavy, so—"

Alek stepped in, lifting her bags off her shoulder as she re-adjusted her grip on it. "Thanks!" she said, another blush on her face.

"Not a problem!" said Alek. She was making him feel increasingly awkward so, he turned away, aware that his cheeks were probably the same colour as the giant orangutan.

Pauline was smirking at them which didn't help the situation. "Look, there's fifteen minutes to the bell, we can go in now!" she said and the three friends walked in and placed their stuff down underneath the benches that were squashed in the middle.

Deryn frowned as she placed her orangutan in the corner of the room. "Is it just me or has he got more experiments in her since the beginning of term?"

Pauline groaned. "Brilliant. He's removed a row of tables. Fitzroy is going to go berserk. He and his gang always like the back row to themselves, but they're always late. They won't have seats!"

Alek sat down near the front row and pulled out some paper. "How much writing do we do, usually?"

Deryn pulled a face. "As much as you can. He likes to lecture, so you need to be able to take notes fast."

Alek sighed; he wasn't quite proficient enough in English to write quickly in it. His notes would have to be in German. He pulled out a few more sheets and scanned the classroom.

"Textbooks?" he asked absentmindedly.

"Doesn't have them. What with this being an academy, the curriculum is quite fluid. He's at perfect liberty to teach as he pleases, regardless of what we already know or need to know to pass. We often do a lot of individual study. At least Eddie gets through the subject matter, despite being the most informal guy I've ever met. Dr. Tesla's a showman and insane." muttered Deryn as more of the class filtered in and goggled at Deryn's orangutan.

Just as the bell rung, the class finished coming in. As Pauline had predicted, Fitzroy had come in last and had to be satisfied with the floor when his attempts to bully some people out of 'his' seats failed.

Purple smoke started billowing out from the sidelines and Deryn started to snicker, while Alek straightened. A voice came from the sidelines, booming and deep.

"Welcome….to my physics lessons. Physics is the art of divining the world around us and how it works. It is studying natural phenomena, the aurora borealis, the forces of gravity and friction, the light and sound that enables us to sense. In studying them we gain the ability to control them. And that is when we reach a godlike status. I am Dr. Tesla and I will be your teacher and guide through this year and this area of study!"

As he uttered this last sentence, a thin man with a mustache and a pristine uniform stepped out from the brown door that was inconspicuous behind the many experiments. He wore black gloves, Alek noticed immediately, as if he didn't want to touch anything. And as Deryn said, there was an air of madness about him. However, she had also been right in saying that he was a showman. That had been a masterful performance, even if it had left Deryn in fits of giggles.

Alek started slowly applauding and soon the entire class joined in, apart from Deryn who seemed unable to speak, through her guffawing.

Dr. Tesla inclined his head. "I thank you. Today we will be discussing the different forms of energy that surround our daily lives and how they effect us all in many ways…."

(X)

"I don't know what you were talking about, Deryn!" exclaimed Alek as he tinkered with the malfunctioning incubator, "That man is brilliant!"

Deryn rolled her eyes from where she was sketching. "Just because he gave you extra credit for answering that mass was a form of potential energy."

"That's not all! The man's amazing! His innovations in telecommunications are fabulous! Sure, he's a little egotistical about it, but anyone would be if they were that brilliant!" said Alek.

"Yeah, but Professor Toyoda from Crafting is one of the biggest genii and rich people in the world, and he isn't nearly that big-headed!" said Pauline as she flicked through a fabrication identification book. "Deryn, don't forget to add in your drawing that egg three looks close to hatching."

"Aye ,and Dr. Barlow's right in with the government and Prime Minister, but she doesn't act like the world revolves around her!" said Deryn, before softening at his exasperated look. "Look Alek, I just don't like him. I have nothing against the subject, it's obviously very useful, but he's a madman with too much power. Did you hear him go on about how if we controlled the environment, we'd be like gods? It's just wrong that anyone could have that power."

"Isn't that the argument that loads of people brought up about fabrications? That we were playing God by dictating how animals' natures should be like?" asked Alek.

"Aye, well it already happens, in nature. Evolution is a slowed down process of fabrication." said Deryn.

Alek grinned and slyly said, "Yes, but doesn't it already happen in nature? Weather's hardly unnatural?"

Deryn opened her mouth to retort when there was a large shockwave through the earth and Alek was knocked backwards off his feet. He felt a pain in his leg and the side of his head. It was so disorienting that Alek saw his vision blur and fill with spots. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see a lot of smoke and rubble, but neither of his friends were there. Face contorted with the pain of staying alert, Alek slipped into unconsciousness…

(X)

"Alek! Alek! ALEK! Wake up!"

Alek felt his vision swim as he felt a sharp slap against the side of his cheek. Alek drowsily moved his hand up to his cheek and groaned.

"Pauline?" he asked as he painfully sat up.

"Yep, that's me. What's your name?" she asked, her voice oddly gentle.

"Aleksander Hohenburg. Who else would I be?" asked Alek, feeling dreadfully confused.

She smiled at him and held up her hand. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Four," said Alek. Despite the slight double vision and spots near the sides of his vision, it was easy to tell that she was holding up four fingers.

Alek rubbed his temples. "Quel âge à tu, Alek? Et, Où êtes-vous en ce moment?" Pauline asked again.

"Why are you talking in French?" Alek mumbled.

"Just answer me, please." said Pauline, looking crotchety.

"J'ai quinze ans. Et je suis dans le cellier de sciences." answered Alek, scanning the room as his vision returned to normal. It looked like a scene of devastation. The roof seemed to have collapsed and there was a sprinkling of white dust over everything. The many experiments had been knocked over and the skeleton's head had rolled dangerously close to the small hole in the window. Many large bits of plaster and brick scattered the room and Alek noticed the incubator lying on its side.

Pauline seemed to sag in relief. "Thank god you don't have a concussion! That's the last thing we needed to happen what with what happened to Deryn."

"Why do you think I have a concussion?" asked Alek as the words slowly processed in his brain.

"You got a headwound close to your temple, and the blood was gushing out. You've been unconscious for quite a while, but so was I. My watch say about half and hour has passed."

Alek placed his hand to where he could feel the clotting occurring. He came away with red fingers and shuddered. Then the last bit of her sentence processed. "What happened to Deryn?" he asked, his voice cold with fear.

Pauline looked panicked. "That's just the thing. It doesn't look too good."

Alek swirled around in is sitting position. He couldn't see her, so stood up, with a wince as his left knee severely protested. "Where is she?" he asked, his voice getting louder.

Pauline looked a little scared as she too got up and walked over to a large piece of plaster, where trainers seemed to be poking out. "I can't lift it. I'm not athletic. You'll have to help."

Alek nodded ferociously and put his hands under one edge of plaster. Pauline quickly hurried to the other and on a count of three, they lifted up. It was very heavy and they both found it slow work as they shuffled sideways, attempting to not lose their grip on the plaster. It took a few minutes, but they finally maneuvered it away from Deryn substantially. Alek placed it down before rushing to Deryn's side.

She was pale white, and was profusely bleeding from a gash in her leg. Her arms and legs were peppered with tiny cuts, but the thing that worried Alek was the broken leg. It looked awful and Alek could see splinters of bone coming out from the flesh. Pauline looked close to being sick.

Alek pressed down at her wrist with two fingers to try and find a pulse. He couldn't find one, but her skin was still warm, so Alek fumbled at her neck. He waited for a minute and grinned as his probing fingers finally found it; weak, but there.

"She's alive, Pauline!" he said with relief.

Pauline took a deep intake of breath. "Okay then. Good. First thing we need, is for her to be awake. Let me try and wake her up."

Alek nodded and shuffled backwards slightly. Pauline went forwards and pulled out a small bottle from her pocket. She opened it and wafted it under Deryn's nose. It didn't do much.

Pauline shrugged. "It didn't work on you either. Not strong enough, I reckon."

Alek frowned. "What is it?"

"The smell of chillies and chocolate. Two of the strongest scents that can be infused. Used to wake up people. Obviously, not you two." said Pauline as she gently tapped Deryn's face, before slapping her. It served to no avail.

Alek waited as Pauline tried a variety of methods to no result. Alek remembered a story of Sleeping Beauty who wouldn't awaken for over 100 years. He smiled with mischief and wondered if the same method would work here. If anything, it would serve to embarrass Deryn further when(not if, never if) she woke up.

Alek pushed Pauline to the side. "I know what to do."

Pauline rolled her eyes. "Be my guest, Clanker boy." She said, stepping back.

Alek pressed his lips against Deryn and held her head in his hands. He could feel her breath against his face and her soft lips. He grinned, as he immediately got a response. She seemed to awaken with a start and Alek pulled back as she straightened into a sitting position immediately, her eyes like a deer in the headlights.

Deryn seemed to regain herself a little and threw him a look that was unreadable and he heard Pauline howling with laughter behind him.

"I'm glad you're awake now, Sleeping Beauty. We've got a problem on our hands," said Alek dryly, attempting to suppress to urge to kiss her again and tell her that he wouldn't mind dating her. There would be a time for all of that, and now wasn't it.

"Right," said Deryn, "What happened?"

"We were bombed." said Pauline.

"Nooooo!" said Deryn looking sarcastically taken aback, "I couldn't have guessed that in a million years! How fascinating! No shit, Sherlock! Of course we were bombed!"

Pauline threw her hands back. "What can I say, stupid questions get stupid answers!"

"I thought, according to Dr. Barlow, there are no stupid questions, aye?" asked Deryn, her voice like ice.

"Can we leave the banter for later? If you haven't noticed, Deryn's legs are in awful condition, I have a headwound and Lord knows what injury Pauline is hiding. This isn't the time!" snapped Alek as he looked to where the door usually was. It was blocked by the fallen incubator.

Deryn gasped and Alek assumed she had just noticed her leg. But Alek frowned as his gaze was drawn back to the incubator. There seemed to be movement there. But there hadn't been any shockwaves, and the eggs couldn't still be rolling by now….

Alek moved closer to the incubator, walking cautiously, glancing behind him. The two girls were rummaging through the rubble for something, so Alek carefully advanced towards the machinery. Vigilantly, Alek reached for the lever that opened the glass. Nothing sprung out at him, so Alek was about to relax when he heard a pitiful whining sound fill the air.

Alek put himself closer to the ground, till he was almost lying down and saw a creature wailing under the crashed eggs and yellowish goo.

"Hello." He said as gently as he could, "I'm not going to hurt you." As he talked to it, Alek slowly overturned the incubator and pushed it out of the way. The creature looked odd. It had skin that hung off it and large intelligent eyes. The moment it set eyes upon Alek, it looked rather hungry. Alek felt slightly disgusted and yet curious by the creature. He gingerly extended a hand towards it.

It wet to him and crawled up his arm. It's fur was soft and wet and it had markings up its hind legs and on it's forehead. Alek was vaguely disturbed as it reached his head and started licking it. Alek was about to pull it away when he felt a cool, painless sensation fall over the wound that had been dully aching.

Then the words of Dr. Barlow came back to him; "These are fabrications that I have been commissioned to create by the NHS, to help doctors with their workload."

The beast was created to help wounds. And who had a very serious wound?

"Deryn!" yelled Alek, as he pulled the creature away from his own, minor wound. "Deryn, I can help your leg!"

Deryn turned back looking confused. "What do you mean? It takes days, even weeks for a broken bone to set! And that's in a plaster cast!"

Alek grinned. "You know Pauline thought that Egg Three was close to hatching? Guess what happened."

"It hatched?" asked Pauline with great fervour. She focused her eyes on the beast and grinned. "What does it do?"

Deryn and Alek both fixed their gazes on her. She quailed. "What?" she asked.

"For someone who claims to be clever, you have your dumb moments, you really do." Said Deryn. "Alek, are you sure it can do something?"

Alek nodded. "Look, it's cleaned and numbed my headwound. It should stop the pain if nothing else."

Deryn frowned. "What do you mean headwound?"

Alek fumbled at his temple, but found only a slight wet patch that was a little sensitive to the touch. "It's gone!" exclaimed Alek.

"Gone." agreed the beast in a self-satisfied tone. All of them stopped and stared at it.

"This beastie just gets weirder and weirder…" muttered Deryn as Alek gingerly placed it next to her leg. It eagerly started licking Deryn and the look on her face was priceless.

"This feels so strange, Alek, you have no idea." said Deryn as they looked at the wound. As they watched, the edges seemed to fade back into normal skin and the bone, while still sticking out, looked a lot less prominent.

"This is amazing!" said Pauline in barely concealed awe. She was rapidly taking notes in the book she had been using to record observations. Her pen was flying through the pages as she wrote down everything that happened. But Alek could only find himself looking at Deryn, who seemed oddly sleepy.

"Deryn?" asked Alek, "Are you…sleepy?"

Deryn's blink seemed to last a little longer than usual. "Aye, a wee bit. Why?"

Alek concealed a 'schiesse' under his breath. "Stay awake. The beastie's saliva is most likely a sedative. You'll be out like that unless you focus."

Deryn scowled. 'The last thing we need it for me to fall asleep. Okay beastie, lets call it quits. That's should be enough."

"Aye." It answered and hopped off. Alek and Deryn both exchanged looks and Pauline looked excited.

"It's like a parrot isn't it? Whatever you say, it repeats! And that's on top of repairing skin damage!" she said as she wrote it down, "Dr. Barlow is amazing! I have to talk to her about these results, this is fascinating…"

"The fact is, the school was bombed. We were seriously injured, so others might be worse off. Let's see if we can find them." said Alek, drawing attention back to the dilemma at hand.

Deryn nodded and hauled herself to her feet. There was a pained expression on her face. "That's barking painful!" she said as Alek slung her arm around his shoulder so that she could lean on him. Pauline opened the door for them and they all walked through the damaged science laboratory.

"This is awful," murmured Deryn, "It'll take ages to repair all of this."

Pauline on the other hand seemed to be contemplating something else. "This wasn't just for no reason. Someone did this on purpose. Someone destroyed our school on purpose. The question is, why?"

"And how," added Alek darkly, "You British take security seriously! Someone must have noticed this!"

Deryn looked pale as they reached the corridor. "Alek! The Chinese! Your father! Didn't they pledge vendetta against our family? That means you! They must have been targeting you!"

Alek frowned, the prospect was vaguely frightening. "Not now Deryn, Pauline. We've got more important things to do. HELLO? ANYBODY THERE?"

Alek paused and waited for a reply. There were voices near the end of the corridor, where the store cupboard next to Dr. Tesla's class was. There was a large piece of plaster that had fallen in front of the door. They all moved closer to it. "HELLO?" called Alek again.

"Someone's there!" yelled the person inside with relief. "It's Fitzroy. We can't get through the door."

"Of course you can't, it's properly jammed! There's this huge plasterboard in front of it!" said Pauline.

"Can't you move it and get us out?" asked the voice again.

"We'll see what we can do!" yelled Alek back.

"Can't we just leave them there?" asked Deryn, looking annoyed, as Alek went to grasp the plasterboard. .

"Deryn!" exclaimed Pauline.

Deryn looked vaguely affronted. "What? It was a joke!"

"Not a funny one," said Pauline as she attempted to lift it. Deryn rolled her eyes and stood up, grimacing to put her weight underneath the block of plaster. It didn't budge at all.

"This is so annoying!" shouted Alek as he put his back into pushing it away from the door.

"Need a hand?" asked a voice. They all swerved around to see Newkirk and Lilit who both had roughing clothes on, that were already covered in white dust.

Deryn grinned. "It's good to see you two! I was entertaining thoughts that the two of you were dying."

"Good thoughts, were they?" asked Newkirk, as he put his back into the lifting of the plasterboard.

"No more snoring!" added Alek cheekily as the stone started to budge.

Newkirk and Pauline laughed and Lilit put her helping hand in as well, and soon the stone was discarded at the side of the corridor.

"Okay Fitzroy, you can safely come out now!" called Pauline and Newkirk looked outraged. "I wasted energy on helping Fitzroy?"

Deryn barked with laughter. 'That's what I said!"

Lilit looked worriedly at Deryn's leg. "You'll need to get that looked at by Dr. Busk." She said, and Alek saw that it was infused with concern for the first time.

"I'll be fine. A beastie has already helped. We've got more things to worry about. This attack had to be directly targeted for Alek. It obviously didn't work. They'll be coming back. Again. We'll need support. We have to call for the military."

Lilit looked quite unconvinced. "How?"

"I know how to summon them. I just need to get into the air." said Deryn, looking proud, despite her leg and the pain that was obvious in her eyes.

Lilit looked worried. "And you're sure they'll be back?"

Pauline nodded. "I'm sure. They're very determined, Chinese. Good at following instructions too, usually. If they're from the government, they aren't going to rest until Alek's dead."

Lilit nodded, looking clearer now. "There's a machine I've been making in mechaniks. It was for my extra credit project, but it doesn't really matter now. It can get into the air, no problem. It's just that, I can't pilot it. They need me on the ground."

"I'll pilot it," said Alek. "I'm a clanker, aren't I? I'm very good at piloting anything. I'm even better than my father."

Lilt looked skeptical. "You're likely to get covered in engine grease. And dirt. And slime. It's quite unfinished."

Alek shrugged, even though he felt a little disgusted. "So? If that's what it takes, I'll deal with it."

To his surprise, Lilit burst into a grin. "You aren't much like royalty, are you?"

Alek shrugged. "What can I say? I am what I am? Right then, where is it?"

(X)

"Whoa!" yelled Deryn as Alek eased the saunters forwards. The machine was fascinating but it was very obviously in construction. Engine grease was leaking everywhere and the needle pressure was really awful.

Despite all of these problems, somehow, they were flying. Deryn grinned as they ascended higher and higher.

"This is the life, Alek!" she called, even as the wind blew her hair into her face.

"How high do you need to go?" asked Alek checking the controls.

"Around 1000 feet. That ought to do it." said Deryn, checking some strange device that looked yellow and black.

Alek threw her a skeptical look; how this machine would ever reach those heights, he didn't know. He eased the saunters upwards an onwards anyway, attempting to keep the ascent as smooth as possible. It wasn't working. The turbulence was awful, throwing them aroudnt he small, cramped cabin.

The beastie, who had managed to persuade itself along squeaked at a particularly jerky curve and tightened its claws into his shoulder. Claws that it didn't have before. The creature just got stranger.

"We're at around 1000 feet. We may be a little lower though." said Alek as he attempted to keep it at an even level, instead of catapulting all over the sky.

"Aye. Then, I'll set this off then."

With that, Deryn arose in her seat and clambered up onto the head of the walker.

"Be careful Deryn!" Alek yelled, attempting to steady the machine even further. It was a long way down for a girl with an injured leg.

"I will be, you ninny!" she called. Just then, Alek stared as a blinding yellow light started flashing from above him. He could see it for miles. Then, he saw the rapidly moving figure of a hydrogen breather silhouetted by the light. It was getting closer and Alek stared as they lowered a rope down to his viewport as it drew closer.

"Alek, grab hold of it and clip it to something stable! They're going to haul us up!" called Deryn as she flung herself back into the viewport, wincing heavily as her leg jarred upon landing. Alek quickly attached it to the controls and felt the huge airship haul them upwards. He could see the rigging and several fabrications crawling across the green illuminated surface and Alek shuddered just a little.

As they drew close to the top, two harnesses were lowered down to them. Deryn quickly strapped herself in and Alek copied her movements, dreading every second. They were then pulled up and Alek saw around four or five people waiting in the small capsule they were winched to.

The tallest man walked towards and shook their hands. "Good day to you. My name is Captain Hobbes of the Leviathan."

"Barking Spiders!

FIN (Or is it?)


End file.
